The Solar Foundation has published its 2016 National Solar Jobs Census, which they claim is “the most credible, annual review of the solar energy workforce in the United States.” (The report may be downloaded from this web page. For some reason, they require you to identify yourself before reading the report.) The data are based on a combined telephone and email survey of 3,888 businesses engaged in solar activity. A solar job is defined as one in which workers spend 50% of more of their time doing solar-related work; however, 89% of the jobs reported are full-time solar workers.

The headline is that the solar workforce increased by 24.5% in 2016, to an estimated total of slightly over 260,000 jobs. Solar employment has grown 178% since 2010. This is the fourth year in a row in which it has grown by over 20%. In spite of all the fuss here in Pennsylvania over jobs in the natural gas industry, solar employs more people than natural gas; in fact, more than any other energy source except the petroleum.

The Solar Foundations has supplied this handy graphic with the highlights of their survey.

And this relentlessly cheerful video.

The solar job surge is driven primary by demand for residential installations. Installers accounted for 34% of the new jobs. Forty-one percent of solar jobs are in the residential market, compared to 28% in the commercial sector and 31% in utility-scale project development.

One discouraging finding in the report is that the survey respondents predicted a slowdown to only a 10% increase in solar jobs in 2017. The Solar Foundation attributes this in part to the conservatism of employers, who have underestimated solar job growth in previous years. They also make the mathematical point that, as the size of the solar work force grows, any number of new jobs that are added will be a smaller percentage of the total.

The report claims that the overall prospects for solar power remain strong. The cite the rapidly falling cost of solar components, and the extersion of federal Investment Tax Credits until 2021. However, there are some concerns. The declining cost of fossil fuels, especially natural gas, could be a problem. They also mention recent organized attempts (by the fossil fuel industry) to change state net metering laws in order to discourage distributed generation.

You may also be interested in reading:

Solar Bipartisanship

The Public Wants Renewables

Cheaper Solar Changes Everything