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The US Solar Workforce Has Doubled in Just Four Years

The industry has been booming for the last four years—it's adding jobs 20 times faster than the rest of the economy.

The solar industry continues to defy its naysayers; it closed out 2014 as a remarkably strong engine of US job growth. According to ​the Sola​r Foundation's annual census, 31,000 new solar jobs were added in 2014 alone, marking an impressive 21 percent growth rate. Compare that to the national average, which is closer to one percent. The solar industry is adding jobs 20 times faster than the overall economy.

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And that's merely part of a consistent trend. Over the last four years, the number of jobs in the solar industry has grown to nearly 174,000.

"In 2010, since we first started tracking solar jobs, the workforce has nearly doubled,"  Andrea Luecke, Executive Director at the Solar Foundation, told me. "That's 80,000 solar jobs, and 86 percent growth over the last four years."

The jobs are distributed between major central solar plants—like the half-gigawatt Desert Sunlight plant that ​just became fully operational i​n California—and smaller rooftop solar installations and maintenance. The market for home solar is undeniably booming, with companies like SolarCity and Sungevity doing strong business.

"It's remarkable growth," Luecke said. "You know, these jobs are very high paying, very desirable jobs, and they're geographically diverse. Where you have the most installed solar, you have the most jobs."

She credits falling cost, government incentives, and spiking demand for the strong job growth.

"Costs have come down quite significantly over the last several years. It's 100 times cheaper to install solar today than it was in 1977 when my organization was founded," Luecke said.

Manufacturers are the lowest-paid in the solar industry, earning an average of $18 an hour. Installers make between $20-24 an hour, while sales associates make between $30-50. Around 21 percent of solar workers are women, 16 percent are Latino, and nearly 10 percent are veterans, Luecke said.

The Solar Foundation projects slightly less bullish growth rate, but only slightly; they're estimating a 20.9 percent job growth rate for 2015. "That's potentially over-optimistic, but what we've seen is that we're exceeding companies' projections, even for themselves."

"Everybody's going solar," Luecke said. "That's the driver."