Solar Job Growth: A Key Marker in This Race

By Andrea Luecke, Executive Director, The Solar Foundation

October 25, 2011, Reposted from National Journal

There are a number of ways to look at evaluating America’s success in solar versus that of other countries. One key indicator is job growth. American solar companies continue to add jobs. How do we know? We asked them.

The Solar Foundation recently completed our second annual National Solar Jobs Census. It found that the combination of continuing innovation in the sector, coupled with growing demand boosted by the 1603 Treasury Program and incentives at the state level fueled job growth in all 50 states as the U.S. solar industry now employs more than 100,000 Americans.

We examined employment along the solar value chain, including installation, sales and distribution, manufacturing, utilities and other fields and included growth rates and job numbers for 31 separate occupations. The report includes data from more than 2,100 solar company survey respondents.

The 100,000 plus Americans who get up every day to work in the solar industry fill positions with a wide variety of job titles, including installers and assembly workers, but also marketers and accountants just to name a few. Employment in the solar industry grew by nearly seven percent since you last asked about America’s ability to compete in clean energy – making it one of the fastest growing industries in America. Compare this to anemic 0.7% overall job growth in the economy. For an even more stark comparison, fossil fuel energy production lost 2% of its jobs in the past year. More Americans now work in the solar industry than work in coal mining.

Job growth in solar is providing an economic lifeline to workers and areas that have been hit by the recession. We see this in factory workers in the rust belt who are now employed in solar manufacturing, in real estate planners who’ve jumped to solar in the wake of the housing bubble burst and in empty storefronts that are now occupied by growing solar companies. Over the next 12 months, nearly half of solar firms expect to add jobs, according to our Census.

Digging deeper into the data, there is an obvious pattern. States that have enacted policies that invest in solar have more solar jobs. Of the top 20 states with the most solar employment, 18 have a renewable portfolio standard and 15 allow third-party financing of solar projects. Employers pay attention to incentives and regulations when planning for the future. When policymakers create new incentives and encourage investments, it signals to employers that the business climate is friendly, thus prompting private investment and job creation.

The race for clean energy is far from over. Incentives that increase the adoption of solar for consumers and businesses and promote rules that create a fair competitive environment for solar energy relative to fossil fuel projects would help the American solar industry continue its impressive growth and provide jobs to tens of thousands more Americans.