The newly released National Solar Jobs Census reveals that the U.S. solar industry is now home to 263,883 workers and supports jobs in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia, an increase of 8,846 jobs, or 3.5% growth since 2021.

Despite trade uncertainty and supply chain challenges throughout 2022, America’s solar workforce remained resilient and is poised to grow rapidly in the coming years as federal energy incentives continue to drive investment and create economic opportunities in communities across the country.

The census found that this growth came in a year of transition for the solar industry, as the threat of new tariffs on panels and cells and other supply chain concerns led to a slowdown in large-scale solar installations. Nationwide, the utility-scale solar market lost about 6,000 jobs in 2022. In contrast, residential solar jobs grew by 11%, or about 9,500 jobs, balancing out the losses in utility-scale solar.

About two-thirds of all solar jobs in 2022 (171,558) were at installation and project development firms. There were 33,473 jobs at manufacturing firms, 30,618 in wholesale trade and distribution, 16,585 in operations and maintenance, and 11,648 in a miscellaneous “all others” category.

Top 5

Data obtained from the census also shows that solar jobs grew in 42 states and Puerto Rico in 2022. The state with the most jobs added in 2022 was California, the nation’s largest solar market, with 2,404 jobs added. California was followed by New York (988 jobs), Texas (904 jobs), Florida (506 jobs) and Massachusetts (476 jobs).

Total solar manufacturing jobs increased only slightly from 2021. Since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, there have been a flurry of announcements for new domestic manufacturing facilities, which if built could substantially increase manufacturing employment in 2023 and beyond. In addition to the 263,883 workers spending the majority of their time on solar, there were additional workers who spent less than half their time on solar-related work. In total, there were 346,143 workers who spent all or part of their time on solar.

Other clean energy jobs

This year, the Solar Jobs Census included data on jobs in other clean energy industries, based on the findings in the U.S. Department of Energy’s United States Energy & Employment Report (USEER) 2023 survey. There were 85,858 workers employed in clean storage jobs in 2022, a 4.6% increase from 2021. Clean energy storage is in the midst of an employment boom, with jobs growing 28% since 2017. 

In relation to the analysis results, among all clean storage workers, 72,923 workers, or 85% of the total, worked in battery storage. In total, there were about 432,000 workers in either solar energy or clean storage in 2022.

Just over half of battery storage workers were involved in construction, which includes jobs installing the battery storage projects. Another 19% were involved in battery manufacturing, and others were involved in professional and business services or wholesale trade. The top state for clean storage jobs was California with 17,580 jobs, followed by Nevada, Texas, Massachusetts, and Michigan.

There were 125,580 wind energy jobs in 2022, a 4.5% increase from 120,164 jobs in 2021. Among states, Texas leads the nation by far with about 26,000 wind energy jobs. In 2022, there were 546,630 workers in renewable energy generation industries, including solar, wind, traditional hydropower (54,595), low-impact hydropower (11,677), and geothermal (8,635). 

Overall, the USEER found that there are 3.1 million jobs in net-zero energy technologies, an increase of 3.9% from 2021.