For over 30 years, The Solar Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, has promoted the use of solar energy technologies to help meet the world's energy needs.  Through education, research and market transformation, The Solar Foundation strives to increase the use of solar energy, our cleanest, greatest, and most available energy source.

State Solar Jobs Map

We are pleased to announce the special release of our State Solar Jobs Map, an unprecedented effort to provide highly-credible solar jobs numbers for each of the fifty states. Each state has its own shareable profile that contains information on: state jobs figures, rankings of industry subsectors by employment, key state policies supporting solar, and much more. Thousands of data points from a combination of high-quality sources including TSF’s National Solar Jobs Census 2012 and the Solar Energy Industries Association’s National Solar Database were analyzed via a dual methodology to develop the jobs estimates that are the focus of this unprecedented effort.

Press Release

National Solar Jobs Census 2012

On November 14th, 2012, The Solar Foundation released its National Solar Jobs Census 2012, which found that the U.S. solar industry currently employs 119,016 Americans. This figure represents the addition of 13,872 new solar jobs and a 13.2 percent employment growth rate over the previous year. During the same period, employment in the overall economy grew at a rate of 2.3 percent* (according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics), signifying that 1 in 230 jobs created nationally over the last year were created in the solar industry.

*According to EMSI, employment in the overall economy grew only 1.6 percent.

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New TSF Concept Paper: Financing the Next Generation of Solar Workers

The November 2012 release of Financing the Next Generation of Solar Workers marks the culmination of a joint effort between The Solar Foundation, SolarTech, and the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP), working together under the SolarTech Workforce Innovations Collaborative (SWIC), to conceive of a number of innovative funding mechanisms to provide adequate private-sector funding for workforce training programs. This concept paper provides a starting point for a new path forward in financing solar workforce training. The three funding mechanisms described in the paper are not offered prescriptively; rather, our intention in proposing them is to motivate a discussion on how the solar industry and other stakeholders might come together to bridge the impending workforce funding gap.

Press Release