Solar industry employment in the USA jumped by over 73,000 jobs (+25%) in 2016, and the nation’s wind industry added 25,000 positions according to the U.S Department of Energy.
The DoE released its second annual National Energy Employment Analysis on the weekend, which shows renewable energy and other low-carbon technologies are gaining more ground.
“Whether producing natural gas or solar power at increasingly lower prices or reducing our consumption of energy through smart grids and fuel efficient vehicles, energy innovation is proving itself as the important driver of economic growth in America, producing 14% of the new jobs in 2016,” said DOE Senior Advisor on Industrial and Economic Policy, David Foster.
Electric Power Generation employment in the USA now stands at 860,869 jobs, up 13 percent from 2015’s 759,518 workers. Solar employment accounts for the largest share of workers in the sector.
According to the report, 373,807 Americans spend time working in solar manufacturing, installation, distribution, or providing professional services to the sector. Most of these employees are involved with solar PV technologies and just over 9% work in concentrating solar technologies.
Solar jobs tend to be concentrated in specific geographic regions – 41% were in California.
2017 is looking bright for solar energy in the USA, with employers expecting to increase employment by seven percent over the next year.
The USA’s wind technology sector is also a major employer, with a total of 101,738 workers at the end of last year, a 32 percent increase over 2015. Over the next 12 months, wind employers reported projected growth of just under four percent. As with solar, wind power jobs tend to be concentrated in several states – 24% of all wind jobs are in Texas.
Of the 1.9 million workers in Electric Power Generation and Fuels across the nation, 800,000 were involved with the production of low-carbon electricity.
Coal-based electric generation employed a total of just 86,035 workers.
Battery storage is starting to emerge as a significant employer, with more than 47,000 jobs in the sector at the end of last year.
The report states 2.2 million workers in the USA spend some or all of their time working with energy-efficiency related technologies and services; up by 133,000 jobs.
The full 2nd Annual National Energy Employment Analysis can be downloaded here (PDF).
The report comes a few days after DoE’s Secretary, Ernest Moniz, detailed the Obama Administration’s efforts relating renewable energy over the last eight years.
