{"id":93013,"date":"2021-01-18T08:01:41","date_gmt":"2021-01-18T13:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarpowerworldonline.com\/?p=93013"},"modified":"2021-01-08T10:02:37","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T15:02:37","slug":"solar-jobs-have-up-and-down-year-in-the-middle-of-a-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarpowerworldonline.com\/2021\/01\/solar-jobs-have-up-and-down-year-in-the-middle-of-a-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Solar jobs have up-and-down year in the middle of a pandemic <br><span style='color:#404040;font-weight:600;font-size:15px;'>2021 Trends in Solar<\/span>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By all measurements, 2020 was set to be a landmark year for solar industry employment. The Solar Foundation\u2019s<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarpowerworldonline.com\/2020\/02\/national-solar-jobs-census-solar-employment-up-2-3-after-two-years-of-losses\/\"> <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">National Solar Jobs Census<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> reported a 2.3% employment increase after two previous years of losses, employing 249,983 people in 2019. Similarly, a<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.seia.org\/research-resources\/covid-19-impacts-us-solar-industry\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SEIA analysis<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> estimated that the industry would employ approximately 320,000 people in the United States by June 2020, but COVID-19 came to prominence stateside several months earlier, causing a 38% drop, or about 114,000 cut, in total solar jobs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThousands of solar workers are being laid off each week, but with swift action from Congress, we know that solar can be a crucial part of our economic recovery,\u201d said Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of SEIA, in a press release from May.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_93015\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-93015\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-93015\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarpowerworldonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Credit-Nextracker-scaled-e1610118087289-500x325.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"325\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarpowerworldonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Credit-Nextracker-scaled-e1610118087289-500x325.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.solarpowerworldonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Credit-Nextracker-scaled-e1610118087289-368x238.jpg 368w, https:\/\/www.solarpowerworldonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Credit-Nextracker-scaled-e1610118087289.jpg 770w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-93015\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nextracker<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No industry was unscathed by COVID-19\u2019s pervasive presence, and states scrambled to determine what qualified as essential work. While installers managed to continue operating in most states, others, like New York, left solar out altogether. So, solar sales teams moved to remote operations and installers<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarpowerworldonline.com\/2020\/07\/dont-let-your-guard-down-covid-19-is-still-here\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">established social distancing and sanitization measures<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at jobsites.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The California Solar &amp; Storage Association (CALSSA) published<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarpowerworldonline.com\/2020\/05\/calssa-survey-estimates-solar-storage-jobs-lost-due-to-covid-19\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">an employment survey<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in May with results estimating 15,000 furloughed clean energy jobs in the state alone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cOur local businesses are suffering greatly due to COVID-19,\u201d said Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of CALSSA, in a press release. \u201cUnless immediate action is taken, the impacts could harm job growth and slow California\u2019s transition to clean, resilient and reliable energy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Industry organizations, solar companies and legislators<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarpowerworldonline.com\/2020\/07\/650-solar-companies-send-letter-to-congress-supporting-solar-recovery\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">pushed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to have renewables included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, the latest coronavirus relief package, passed December 21, 2020. U.S. Representatives Mike Levin (D-CA) and Dave Schweikert (R-AZ) introduced the<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarpowerworldonline.com\/2020\/12\/us-representatives-introduce-bill-protect-solar-jobs-itc\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Solar Jobs Preservation Act<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in November to prevent the solar investment tax credit (ITC) from another dropdown at the end of 2020. The solar ITC has been regarded as a tool to stimulate solar job growth, and through the Consolidated Appropriations Act, was extended another two years at its current rate of 26%.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite job cuts, there is still a solar workforce demand, and installers are being hired out of training programs. State-funded programs like<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/calsomah.org\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in California and Illinois<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarpowerworldonline.com\/2019\/10\/first-illinois-solar-for-all-projects-approved\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Solar For All<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> have stimulated job training and creation, targeting low-income communities and residents as candidates. And the ITC will remain an incentive to promote solar development.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As solar installers have adjusted to the reality of COVID-19, and potentially with widespread vaccinations on the horizon, the industry is moving into 2021 with federal economic support to regain momentum and rebuild the workforce.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By all measurements, 2020 was set to be a landmark year for solar industry employment. The Solar Foundation\u2019s National Solar Jobs Census reported a 2.3% employment increase after two previous years of losses, employing 249,983 people in 2019. Similarly, a SEIA analysis estimated that the industry would employ approximately 320,000 people in the United States&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19854,"featured_media":93015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[3004,4787],"tags":[4316,199],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Solar jobs have up-and-down year in the middle of a pandemic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By all measurements, 2020 was set to be a landmark year for solar industry employment. 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