The Solar Foundation, a non-profit solar energy advocacy group, delivered the National Solar Jobs Census—and the numbers are very good.
The Solar Foundation’s National Solar Jobs Census 2016 is the seventh annual update on current employment, trends, and projected growth in the U.S. solar industry. The Solar Jobs Census 2016 found that solar employment increased by over 51,000 workers, a 25 percent increase over 2015. Overall, the Solar Jobs Census found there were 260,077 solar workers in 2016. Solar industry employment has nearly tripled since the first National Solar Jobs Census was released in 2010.
Those are quite a few jobs, not as many as just the word “jobs” on the Dakota Access Pipeline Facts promotional page, but definitely a real number showing real job growth. Here are some actual data points.
- One out of every 50 new jobs added in the United States in 2016 was created by the solar industry, representing 2% percent of all new jobs.
- Solar jobs in the United States have increased at least 20 percent per year for the past four years, and jobs have nearly tripled since the first Solar Jobs Census was released in 2010.
- Over the next 12 months, employers surveyed expect to see total solar industry employment increase by 10 percent to 286,335 solar workers.
- In 2016, the five states with the most solar jobs were California, Massachusetts, Texas, Nevada, and Florida.
California ranked number one with almost half of all of our country’s solar jobs with 100,050 people employed in the solar energy field. Super low on that list? North Dakota with 175 jobs. Of course that was a 50 percent growth from last year and, in North Dakota’s defense, is well within the national ratio of solar workers to overall workforce in the state. The biggest growth in solar jobs from last year was Oklahoma, going from 395 jobs to 814 for a 106 percent growth spurt. Maybe all of those earthquakes are motivating?