Labor Dept: Renewable energy jobs fastest growing sector in U.S.

Released on October 24, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics biennial employment projections report shows that over the next decade, jobs for solar panel installers and wind turbine technicians will grow twice as fast as any other occupation, according to a Bloomberg analysis.

The top-growing job classification over the next 10 years will be solar photovoltaic installers. These positions are expected to double from 11,300 in 2016 to 23,200 by 2026. The median salary for a solar panel installer was $39,340 last year.

Wind turbine technicians came in at number two in the fastest growing job classifications. This job classification is projected to grow 96 percent by 2026, from 5,800 to 11,300 jobs. The median salary in 2016 was $52,260.

BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS

Where are most of the renewable jobs located?
According to an analysis by CBC News, a majority of the renewable jobs and markets are in the Red States, those states who voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Even as the Trump administration works to dismantle clean energy incentives, large-scale renewables projects in the Midwest and South are moving ahead.

According to figures from the Solar Foundation, which tracks the industry, of the 10 states where solar jobs grew the fastest between 2015 and 2016, eight voted for Trump, and in the top three of those states, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Alaska, solar jobs grew 100 percent during the same time period.

“The number of people working in the renewables sector could reach 24 million by 2030, more than offsetting fossil-fuel job losses and becoming a major economic driver around the world.,” says the IRENA report.

EDF Report

“Solar has become a clean, inexpensive source of electricity. Especially on the utility side, it’s competitive with gas and coal,” said Colin Smith, a solar analyst at GTM Research. “You can look at a lot of the resource plans of big utilities in Alabama, Mississippi, California — they’re not doing this for anything else besides that it’s good economics,” Smith added.

One interesting trend is the shift to decentralized energy installations. Globally, they make up a quarter of new renewable installations. “I think we’ll start seeing growth in sectors we haven’t seen before,” said GTM’s Smith.

“We’re seeing Florida, we’re seeing Texas, we’re seeing development in the Midwest in a number of locations. So it’s not just growing, but it’s spreading into new territory.”