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Green Jobs Are Real: German and American Solar Industry Both Employ More People Than U.S. Steel Production

By Stephen Lacey, Climate Progress
June 17, 2011 | 9 Comments

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Washington, D.C., United States – With roughly 93,500 direct and indirect jobs, the American solar industry now employs about 9,200 more workers than the U.S. steel production sector, according to 2010 Bureau of Labor Statistics. The American steel industry has historically been a symbol of the country's industrial might and economic prosperity. But today, the solar industry has the potential to overtake that image as we build a new, clean-energy economy.

Last week, Germany’s economic development agency announced similarly big news: There are now more than 100,000 workers employed in the German solar PV industry alone. Why is that so significant? The U.S. figures take into account solar jobs in PV, solar hot water and concentrating solar power; Germany is only factoring in solar PV.

And as a reader over at Clean Technica observed: “The US has about 312 million people while Germany has 82 million, about 25% as many people…. That makes the German solar industry more than four times as large an employer than US steel based on country size.”

A couple words of caution: These figures are comparing solar manufacturing, sales and installation to steel production alone. If one were to factor in products made from steel, the industry would be up around 160,000 workers.

With that said, the solar industry is just getting started here in America. Solar is a high-growth industry with the potential to create millions more jobs in a diverse range of sectors; while still an extraordinarily important industry, steel is not.

Rhone Resch, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, explains the significance:

Whether it is construction contractors, plumbers, electricians, assembly-line workers or even lawyers and accountants, solar is creating new opportunities at a time when so many Americans are looking for some good news on the job front. In just three short years, the solar industry has grown from a small start-up to an industry that now employs more Americans than U.S. steel production.

Yet, even with such a big milestone for the U.S. economy, political leaders like Louisiana Representative John Fleming are questioning the “so-called green jobs that we’re yet to see produced.”

The bigger question for Mr. Fleming and other doubters is: Which curve do you want to place your bets on?

The continued growth in U.S. solar?

Or the uncertain future for U.S. steel? (The black line represents the U.S. and the red line is China.) Sadly, without leadership on a long-term renewable energy policy, the split between America and China below may just play out in the solar industry as well.

This article was originally published by Climate Progress and was reprinted with permission.

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The information and views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of RenewableEnergyWorld.com or the companies that advertise on its Web site and other publications.

9 Reader Comments

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samharriman

June 21, 2011

Good stuff. Thanks so much for reporting.

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hugh-sharman-11214

June 22, 2011

Until these 'green' jobs no longer have to rely on the 'green' industry receiving subsidies from either the tax payer or from rate payers, then this claim is hollow. The money spent on subsidies could otherwise generate real wealth.

Oil (and soon internationally traded gas) now costs ten times what it did in 2001 and internationally traded coal six times. Expensive fossil energy is diverting spending power away from productive activity and wealth creation to primary producers, causing job losses. But 'green bling', supported by taxes and rate payers is actually a neat way to rob the poor and give the rich that smug feeling of 'moral superiority'.

It is vital to get the costs of renewable energy down and that the hidden, very real costs of its intermittency are made more transparent, so that energy consumers of all social and financial classes can have more money to spend, invest or save. And that's what will create real sustainable wealth and jobs.

Continual calls for more subsidy is infantilising this 'green' industry. It generally has not realised this. Now it MUST grow up and 'wash its face' against its ever more costly fossil fuel competition. That should not be all that hard! Fossil energy costs will rise and rise. And, by the way, many pure shale gas plays are actually losing money.

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kparcell

June 22, 2011

The best way to go for jobs is decentralized energy because the money works at the base of the economy where the most jobs are created, and studies show that community energy generation is the most cost-effective. Please post more info looking at community energy plants, such as aggregation, so that policy makers are encouraged in the best direction.

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doggydogworld

June 22, 2011

It takes 100k people to supply less than 0.1% of our electricity? Scaling up to 100% would take 100m workers? That's almost our entire workforce dedicated solely to intermittent electrical production. Forget about food, shelter, clothing, transportation, healthcare, insurance, etc. Going solar means we get electricity and little else (maybe some gov't workers to handle the subsidies).

Seriously, this 'encouraging' data shows that solar has a serious problem. People get it backwards when they look at jobs. The key to a better standard of living is not finding ways to hire more people to provide less functionality. Heck, the government could end unemployment tomorrow by hiring 8 million people to dig holes all day and another 8 million to fill them in at night. We advance because we find ways to fill the same needs with less labor. Growing food for a thousand people once too 500 farmers, now it takes 5. We don't cry about the 495 lost farming jobs (well, usually), we celebrate our vastly higher standard of living because we freed up enough labor to provide better healthcare, more comfortable houses, jet travel, and yes, even build solar panels.

Call me when solar can provide 10% of our electricity using less than 0.1% of our workforce.

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samharriman

June 22, 2011

I'm sure the day will come. i might be old and grey by then, but it'll happen. shoot me an email, it'll be interesting to reconnect about it down the line.

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plindsey

June 22, 2011

doogydogworld - a good analogy, but once the panels are installed at one location, they will require little maintenance and no replacement for 25 years.

The corollary though is how much of this equipment is being manufactured in the US. Are we maintaining what is essentially a service industry by subsidizing the cost? What incentive do the contractors have to make the installation "plug-n-play" with pre-built, pre-certified disconnect panels, integrated panels w/ properly sized (perhaps oversized) microinverters, easy power and grounding wiring and connections, etc? I say very little, because the contractors are recieving their full invoiced amount. People talk about the sost of the panels dropping below $1/W, but the balance of the system and the installation costs remain high.

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doggydogworld

June 22, 2011

Plindsey, it's true I didn't factor in the 25 year panel life. On the flip side, my sub-0.1% electricity production included panels installed many years ago, not just this year. The right way is to compare lifetime output of solar installed in 2010 vs. the 2010 labor force:

950 MW * 1400 hours/year * 25 years = 33 TWh

That's a little below 1% of 2010 electricity usage from a little below 0.1% of our labor force. Still way off the 10% of electricity from 0.1% of our labor that I say the industry needs to hit, but not as bad as my original message implied.

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samharriman

June 22, 2011

@plindsey,
Yes, you are spot-on about the maintenance and replacement advantages of pv, the manufacturing and the service-oriented nature of our economy here in the USA. (candidly, i think it's an economy structured by the ruling class to make debt-slaves out of ever more pv system owners—and contractors alike!)

That is to say, i agree with your assessment. And recognize my above interpretation is my own...

That being said, I've got a few things to say as a contractor:
1. pv is an elegantly simple technology
2. electricity is a bargain at any price.
3. energy (particularly DC electrical energy) can cause severe damage or death to persons and property.
4. skilled tradespeople don't work for free
5. The Andalay system exists, and i know this because i am a trained professional with an established track-record.
6.... i could go on, but i won't.

I'm sorry; i recognize installation cost as a barrier to the $1/W holy grail, but equipment expense is a far more flexible metric.

If i was working on your pv installation, i'd invite you onto the roof and explain how it goes together (if my insurance policy allowed it), and genuinely enjoy sharing my professional understanding with you (despite the fact that time is money, and i've got work to do). I might explain to you the reasons why current technology limitations can make oversizing micro inverters a poor design choice.

Like i said, i apologize for the tone. Punditry gets me going... i might not be a nuclear physicist, but i've got at least as much justified professional pride as an auto mechanic—tradespeople i willingly pay when i'm not qualified to do something safely *and* efficiently.

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kparcell

June 23, 2011

@doggydog

We can't say that too many people are engaged in the US solar industry until we know where all their product goes, confirm the numbers, consider what that electricity does, what we want it to do, etc.

But your point is key in principle, imo, and I'd like to see your sources for your stats linked for the careful look this point deserves.

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Stephen Lacey

About: I am a reporter with ClimateProgress.org, a blog published by the Center for American Progress. I am former editor and producer for RenewableEnergyWorld.com, wh... more »