{"id":11427,"date":"2014-11-19T04:07:19","date_gmt":"2014-11-19T09:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=11427"},"modified":"2014-11-19T04:20:09","modified_gmt":"2014-11-19T09:20:09","slug":"even-more-u-s-solar-jobs-than-in-coal-or-oil-and-gas-extraction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/even-more-u-s-solar-jobs-than-in-coal-or-oil-and-gas-extraction.html","title":{"rendered":"Even more U.S. solar jobs than in coal or oil and gas extraction"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nIn a year solar jobs increased more than 20% to 142,000,\r\naccording to the\r\n\r\nNational Solar Jobs Census 2013<\/a>.\r\n

\r\nLet’s remember Politifact Rhode Island rated as true\r\nSenator Sheldon Whitehouse’s claim that\r\n\r\nthere are already more solar jobs than coal mining jobs<\/a>.\r\nAnd already last year there were\r\n\r\nmore solar jobs than in production and nonsupervisory oil and gas extraction<\/a>.\r\nThat was 119,000 solar jobs according to the\r\n\r\nNational Solar Jobs Census 2012<\/a>\r\nby the Solar Foundation; thus the 20% increase.\r\n

\r\nMeanwhile, “production and nonsupervisory employees” in the oil and\r\ngas extraction industry increased 4% from 106,400 in September 2013 to\r\n110,600 in September 2014, according to\r\n\r\nOil and Gas Extraction: NAICS 211<\/a> by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.\r\nTotal oil and gas industry employment increased 8% from\r\n197,500 to 213,100 in the same period.\r\n

\r\nOf course, we really should be using the 2013 (not 2014) oil and gas figures\r\nto compare to the Solar Jobs Census 2013,\r\nso those 142,000 solar jobs would be 33% more than the 106,400 nonmanagerial \r\noil and gas extraction jobs, and 72% of the total 197,500 oil and gas jobs.\r\nBut oil and gas jobs are growing\r\nso slowly it doesn’t really matter which year:\r\nthey might as well be standing still while solar jobs soar upwards.\r\n

\r\nAnd the solar employment picture just keeps getting more sunny.\r\nEhren Goossens, Bloomberg News, 27 January 2014,\r\n\r\nU.S. Solar Jobs Grow 20% to More Than 142,000 Last Year<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\nThe survey of more than 15,000 employers found 23,682 jobs were\r\nadded, with installation accounting for about half of the industry’s\r\n142,698 workers, the nonprofit Solar Foundation concluded in a\r\nreport posted on its website today. The rate is 10 times more than\r\nthe national average for job growth, as a continued decline in\r\ninstallation costs spurs demand for solar power systems.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nCompare those 23,682 new solar jobs\r\nto this claim on the website of the\r\n\r\nU.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee<\/a>\r\nabout the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline\r\n\r\nthe U.S. Senate just rejected<\/a>:\r\n

\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nAccording to the\r\n\r\nState Department’s Environmental Impact Statement<\/a>,\r\n“During construction, proposed Project spending would support\r\napproximately 42,100 jobs (direct, indirect, and induced), and\r\napproximately $2 billion in earnings throughout the United States.”\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nAs that House website laments, it’s been more than six years since\r\nKeystone XL was proposed.\r\nMeanwhile, the solar industry added more than half that many jobs\r\nin a single year, without any need to gouge a leaky hazardous\r\npipeline through the Ogallala Aquifer and across half the U.S.\r\n

\r\nBack to the Bloomberg story:\r\n

\r\n

\r\n“The solar industry’s job-creating power is clear,”\r\nAndrea Luecke, president of the Washington-based foundation, said in\r\nthe statement. “For the fourth year running, solar jobs remain\r\nwell-paid and attract highly skilled workers.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThe rate of growth is expected to slow in the next 12 months to 15.6\r\npercent as developers scale back on large solar projects, the report\r\nfound. Of the 22,240 additional solar jobs predicted, developers are\r\nplanning to add 360 workers as the federal government’s investment\r\ntax credit is set to expire in 2016, reducing bank funding\r\nopportunities for new projects.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nThat decreased projected growth rate of 15.6% would still be\r\nmore than 7 times the national average for job growth.\r\nLet’s project that forward, along with the oil and gas jobs\r\nobserved growth rates:\r\n\r\n
Jobs<\/th>Growth Rate<\/th>\r\n2012<\/th>2013<\/th>2014<\/th>2015<\/th>2016<\/th>\r\n2017<\/th>2018<\/th>2019<\/th>2020<\/th><\/tr>\r\n
Solar Jobs<\/th>15.6%<\/td>\r\n\r\n119,000\r\n<\/strong>\r\n<\/td>\r\n\r\n142,000\r\n<\/strong>\r\n<\/td>\r\n164,152\r\n<\/td>\r\n189,759\r\n<\/td>\r\n219,362\r\n<\/td>\r\n253,582\r\n<\/td>\r\n293,141\r\n<\/td>\r\n338,871\r\n<\/td>\r\n391,735\r\n<\/td><\/tr>\r\n
Oil and Gas Extraction
production and
non-supervisory<\/th>		3.95%<\/td>\r\n<\/td>\r\n\r\n106,400\r\n<\/strong>\r\n<\/td>\r\n\r\n110,600\r\n<\/strong>\r\n<\/td>\r\n114,965\r\n<\/td>\r\n119,503\r\n<\/td>\r\n124,221\r\n<\/td>\r\n129,124\r\n<\/td>\r\n134,221\r\n<\/td>\r\n139,519\r\n
Oil and Gas Extraction
Total<\/th>		7.89%<\/td>\r\n<\/td>\r\n\r\n197,500\r\n<\/strong>\r\n<\/td>\r\n\r\n213,100\r\n<\/strong>\r\n<\/td>\r\n229,932\r\n<\/td>\r\n248,093\r\n<\/td>\r\n267,689\r\n<\/td>\r\n288,833\r\n<\/td>\r\n311,648\r\n<\/td>\r\n336,824\r\n<\/td><\/tr><\/table>\r\n

\r\nAt those rates, solar jobs will pass total oil and gas jobs\r\nby 2018, which is about the year \r\nsolar energy production will pass oil energy production in the U.S.<\/a>\r\nOf course, those rates won’t continue exactly like that for that long.\r\nMore likely, the fossil fuel bubble will pop by then and oil and gas\r\njobs will decrease, as\r\n\r\nis already happening with coal mining jobs<\/a>.\r\nWhich will make solar deployment and jobs rise even faster.\r\n

\r\nBack to the Bloomberg story to look even farther ahead:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nU.S. solar energy capacity jumped 35 percent in the third quarter\r\ndriven by large-scale projects, according to the Solar Energy\r\nIndustries Association. A February 2012 U.S. Energy Department study\r\npredicted that employment in the solar industry will reach more than\r\n340,000 by 2030.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nSo U.S. DoE projects slower solar job growth, but it probably didn’t\r\nproject that 20% 2012-2013 solar job increase, either.\r\nEven if DoE is correct, solar jobs still are increasing far faster\r\nthan the national average.\r\nHere’s why:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nThe cost of installed solar equipment has dropped more than 50\r\npercent since the start of 2010, the foundation said. Installers\r\nmake an average of $23.63 an hour, according to the survey.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“The American solar industry has the potential to be one of\r\nthe greatest job creators this country has ever seen,”\r\nSolarCity Corp. (SCTY) Chief Executive Officer Lyndon Rive said in\r\nthe statement. The solar installation company has added more than\r\n2,000 jobs since the start of 2013, he said.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n<\/a>\r\nThe continuing price drop in solar power equipment costs\r\nis what keeps driving solar deployment and solar employment up.\r\nThat’s on house tops and business roofs and solar farms where\r\npeople actually want solar power.\r\nSolar power that doesn’t leak or explode,\r\nrequires no fuel, and needs no testing or cooling water.\r\nBringing solar jobs right here where we need them,\r\nand bringing down energy bills.\r\n

\r\nWhile fossil fuel deployment requires interstate oil and gas pipelines\r\non massively environmentally destructive rights of way.\r\nPipelines that corrode, leak, and explode.\r\nPipelines to export fossil fuels to foreign markets for profit for\r\na few industry executives and investors, while running up domestic\r\nprices for those same fuels.\r\n

\r\nLet the sun rise.\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a year solar jobs increased more than 20% to 142,000, according to the National Solar Jobs Census 2013. Let’s remember Politifact Rhode Island rated as true Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s claim that there are already more solar jobs than coal mining jobs. And already last year there were more solar jobs than in production and […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[216,14,19,6124,559,24,55],"tags":[8753,8704,8701,8709,8702,12,7,562,8782,2151,7752,8714,6,8727],"class_list":["post-11427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coal","category-economy","category-history","category-natural-gas-2","category-oil","category-solar","category-water","tag-coal","tag-economy","tag-georgia","tag-history","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-natural-gas","tag-oil","tag-politifact","tag-sheldon-whitehouse","tag-solar","tag-valdosta","tag-water"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-2Yj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11427"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11435,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11427\/revisions\/11435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}