Solar, EVs and a big exit from coal: 2024’s good climate news
Solar capacity around the world was rolled out at a record pace, as bargain panel prices helped countries deploy cleaner energy.
Solar power, once derided as an expensive and unreliable energy source, has become a major generator of employment in the United States, according to new data supplied by The Solar Foundation.
In its most recent annual report, Solar Jobs Census 2016, the foundation found that one out of every 50 jobs in the U.S. last year, was created by the solar industry – or 2% of all new jobs. Solar jobs have increased at least 20% over the past four years and have nearly tripled since the first Solar Jobs Census was released in 2010.
In 2016, the five states with the most solar jobs were California, Massachusetts, Texas, Nevada, and Florida.
Of the 260,077 people employed in the solar industry in 2016, over half (52.7%) were involved in installation. Manufacturing represented 14.7% of solar employment, sales and distribution 12.4%, and project development 13.2% of the total. The most dramatic growth occurred in installation, which saw a 212% increase in the number of jobs between 2010 and 2016, according to the report. (see table and graph below)
Perhaps the most interesting finding, from a mining perspective, is how the number of solar jobs compares to other forms of electricity generation. Despite representing just 1.3% of US energy production, “Solar employs slightly more workers than natural gas, over twice as many as coal, over three times that of wind energy, and almost five times the number employed in nuclear energy. Only oil/petroleum has more employment (by 38%) than solar,” reads an executive summary. (see table below)
Other key findings:
The full report can be freely downloaded here
13 Comments
Guest
The only reason that there are more workers in the solar industry today than coal or natural gas, is that both coal and natural gas have been destroyed by government policies. The labor force will always flow to where the jobs are. Change the policies and solar will fade into obscurity.
db
Welcome to 1853.
wags1
BS
Kenneth Viney
And that number does not account for the workers needed to repair roof leaks in high wind areas. Some mortgage companies deny roof mounted installations for this reason. Ground installations are recommended by this consultant. [email protected]
Stan
It’s a silly article. The writer ignores that natural gas companies typically build own and operate their facilities through separate contract firms. Including the work forc of the drilling rigs, construction, pipeline, engineering, etc. firms directly associated with the natural gas industry would multiply the numbers 100 fold.
patentbs
I will never belittle any employment! When PV solar has advanced enough to be able to provide electric heat at midnight you will have my total support. That will happen as technology advances to meet the need. Right now policies and subsidies promote getting the panel on the roof top and not creating storage and conversion. Wrong move.
We still need the nukes and burners to have a stable grid. The efficiency of those technologies are reflected in the total employment numbers.
Robert May
I personally know many of the regulations in mining.
I have also designed and installed several PV solar installations.
Where is the fall protection for the two workers in the picture?
Gary
How many workers would there be if the industry was not subsidised as it is?
Mark Womack
Just look at what happend last year, the price of solar became cheaper then coal and natural gas in many countries around the world.
just do a little research with current data from 2017 and you will see the writing on the wall for coal and natural gas. India just cancelled a coal plant for a solar one as well as in Dubai a solar plant is selling electricity for 3 cents per kWh. All without subsidies!
Mark Harder
The original source says that the median wage for solar installers $26/hr. That’s not bad, esp. when 2/3 of solar employees do not have a bachelors degree. I fail to see why labor intensiveness is a problem. Well-paying jobs that don’t require a higher education are what we need to replace jobs lost when the steel mills, etc. closed. Yes, the statistics are difficult to interpret from a short article such as this and the one-page solar industry graphic. Methodology is all important. What jobs do you include in each industry? Did you utilize more than one source for your data, and how do you reconcile any disparities among your sources? Etc., etc.
Chris Pritchard
This is pure crap.
Diogenes60025
And why is that a good thing? the energy industry doesn’t exist as en eleemosynary institution–to provide make-work jobs to warm bodies. And that means providing the maximum amount of usable energy at as little cost as possible. And a lot of that cost is in payroll.
What is it with journalists, anyhow? A high headcount = low productivity = high cost. Solar energy is high cost, and unreliable.
The coal and natural gas industries have done outstanding jobs at improving productivity, and the fact that American citizens enjoy the lowest energy costs of major OECD countries is proof of that.
The entire human-caused global warming meme is apocryphal and unproven–the
worst sort of scientism. Political leaders who impose or accept taxes or regulations on fossil fuels will be seen as fools.
Climate change is a false premise for regulating or taxing CO2 emissions. Nature converts CO2 to calcite (limestone). Climate change may or may not be occurring, but is is surely NOT caused by human fossil fuels use. Changes in temperature cause changes in ambient CO2, with an estimated 800 year time lag.
Fossil fuels emit only 3% of total CO2 emissions. 95% comes from rotting vegetation. All the ambient CO2 in the atmosphere is promptly converted in the oceans to calcite (limestone) and other carbonates, mostly through biological paths. CO2 + CaO => CaCO3 (exothermic). The conversion rate increases with increasing CO2 partial pressure. A dynamic equilibrium-seeking mechanism.
99.84% of all carbon on earth is already sequestered as sediments in the lithosphere. The lithosphere is a massive hungry carbon sink that converts ambient CO2 to carbonate almost as soon as it is emitted.
Full implementation of the Paris Treaty is now estimated to cost $50 trillion to $100 trillion by 2030–$6,667-$13,333 per human being. Nearly two-thirds of humanity’s cumulative savings over history. And will not affect climate at all.
marpy
And the numbers from an unbiased source are??