Solar Added 50% More American Jobs than Oil and Gas Drilling and Pipeline Construction in 2014

There's thrilling news out about job growth in the U.S. solar industry:  last year the industry added more than 31,000 jobs, and solar jobs grew at rate of 21.8 percent, according to the new National Solar Jobs Census 2014, published Sunday by the Solar Foundation and George Washington University's GW Solar Institute.  Compare that figure to 1.3 percent job growth for the economy overall, and you understand just how mind-blowing solar job gains are, with the solar industry hiring at a rate of almost 20 times that of the economy as a whole.  This growth topped by almost 50 percent the combined job gains in the oil and gas pipeline construction sector [10,529 new jobs] and the oil and gas drilling industry [8,688 new jobs].  So here's some good news to trumpet around:  in America last year, one out of every 78 new jobs was a solar job.  The industry now employs ... 173,807 of our relatives, neighbors and friends.

This huge growth comes thanks, in large part, to federal, state, local, and utility policies and incentives that advance clean energy technologies.  We're talking here about the federal Investment Tax Credit for solar, state renewable energy standards, state net metering and interconnection rules, pro-solar local permitting practices, along with utility incentives and other policies.  Together, they've spurred demand, sped economies of scale, and driven both investment in technology and competition in the market.

But let's turn back to the good news from the National Solar Jobs Census.  What it has to say about solar's potential is pretty riveting.  It's critical we support their continued use--Congress' two-week extension of the Production Tax Credit for wind power in December was almost a joke--and support and strengthen the EPA's Clean Power Plan to reduce carbon pollution from existing power plants, if we want more jobs in the solar power industry for Americans who need and want them.

Report:  Solar Added 50% More American Jobs than Oil and Gas Drilling and Pipeline Construction in 2014