SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
posted by
Fnord666
on Wednesday March 29 2017, @07:34PM
from the the-future-is-looking-brighter dept.
from the the-future-is-looking-brighter dept.
New data from the Solar Jobs Census 2016 shows that employment in the solar-power industry increased by a historic 25% nationwide from 2015 to 2016, for a total of 260,077 workers.
The industry added 51,218 new jobs in 2016, a growth rate about 17 times faster than that of the overall U.S. economy, which grew by 1.45%. One out of every 50 new jobs added in the U.S. was created by the solar industry, representing 2% percent of all new jobs.
Growth occurred in 44 of the 50 states. And in 21 states, solar jobs grew by 50% or more, according to The Solar Foundation.
Competition among manufacturers has already brought down the cost of panels to grid parity in many places. Competition in installation can't help but bring those costs down, too.
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
Solar Power-Related Jobs in U.S. Grew 25% in 2016
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 28 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
If the thunder don't get you, then the lightning will.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday March 29 2017, @09:02PM
Aside from the political rants, the jobs themselves are interesting.
First of all aside from the parasitic costs (a solar panel installer has to pay for HR just as much as a software company) the "real jobs created" are almost exclusively blue collar electrician specializations. Its hard to imagine siphoning off an eighth of a million licensed electricians but its happening. So thats cool.
There's a national org trying to solar certifications and they're wedging themselves into the legal code. In some states you only get a legacy tax credit on installs if you use a dude certified by the national org. So that's interesting.