US Solar Market Creates Jobs 17 Times Better Than Other Industries

Jobs and the Economy are two hot-button issues that the American public cares about deeply. Politicians promised that these would be addressed by increasing support of the Fossil Fuel industry. Thanks to a recent report, however, it turns out that the best source of jobs in the US is actually the Solar Power industry; the exact opposite of Big Oil.

The report comes via the International Renewable Energy Agency (IREA), which indicates that the job growth within the solar industry is up to 17 times faster than any other industry in the country. As of November 2016, for example, the American industry that sells solar panels and invests in solar energy had 260,077 employees. This is a growth of 24.5 percent compared to the previous year.

As the report indicates, 241,900 of these jobs are concentrated within the photovoltaic part of the solar industry. Solar heating and cooling employ about 13,000, and concentrated solar power has the rest of the 5,200.

Installation took up most of the jobs in the industry as well, which applies to both private and corporate sectors. Manufacturing employs about 15 percent of this number and 13 percent goes to project development.

What these figures indicate is that the solar industry is basically growing faster than even the entire US economy, which is great news for proponents of renewable energy. It also casts a shadow on the claims of politicians and the fossil fuel industry that their solutions hold the answer to the loss of jobs that Americans fear above all else.

On that note, the solar industry isn’t the only renewable energy sector that’s enjoying huge growth right now. Wind is seeing massive employment spurts right now, as well, Futurism reports. The IREA report even estimates that wind will employ about 147,000 jobs when 2020 comes around.