Australians are understandably a little uncertain about the fiscal future of the solar energy industry as rebates are slashed; often with little or no warning, and solar is unfairly made out to be the villain in the increasingly shrill and irrational electricity price-rise blame game.
But if industry research from the US is anything to go by, the sun should be allowed to continue to shine on our solar power industry; even just based on the potential number jobs it can create here in Australia.
Results of The Solar Foundation’s first ever “solar jobs census” in October show that in the US, over half of all solar industry employers plan to put on more workers in 2011.
“This first-ever national census shows that solar jobs are on the rise and expected to grow 26 percent in the coming year,” said Andrea Luecke, acting executive director of The Solar Foundation. “By examining the data from thousands of companies along the entire supply-chain, the study shows that the solar industry is having a substantial and positive impact on the U.S. economy.”
One startling nugget of information to come out of the “National Solar Jobs Census 2010: A Review of the U.S. Solar Workforce” report was the fact that while solar energy jobs are forecasted to grow by 26 percent in the new year, there will be a net job loss of three percent in fossil fuel generation jobs and that industry will only expand by two percent economy wide.
The Solar Foundation’s study used researchers from Cornell University. They looked at employment along the solar value chain, including installation, wholesale trade, manufacturing, utilities and all other fields and included growth rates and job numbers for 31 separate occupations.
“This study contains high-quality research methodology,” said John Bunge, Associate Professor in the Department of Statistical Science at Cornell. “Using both primary and secondary data sources further strengthens this data and ensures even higher confidence in its results.”
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