A new report released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) reveals that solar jobs in the US (and other nations) are expanding quickly.
As of November 2016, the American solar industry employed 260,077 workers. This is an increase of 24.5 percent from 2015, with a growth rate that is 17 times faster than the United States economy as a whole.
The lion's share of these jobs (241,900) were in solar photovoltaics, with an additional 13,000 in solar heating and cooling, and the remaining 5,200 in concentrated solar power (CSP).
More than half of all solar jobs in the US were in installation. Another 15 percent were in manufacturing, with 13 percent in project development, 12 percent in sales and distribution, and a final 6 percent in other areas, including research and development.
The sunlight that is harvested by solar systems is, obviously, free. This makes labour costs and materials the main areas of spending in the solar industry. As costs for materials continue to drop, solar jobs remain a well-compensated area for blue-collar workers.
The solar labour force is also becoming more diverse, with the number of women workers at 28 percent in 2016, up from 19 percent in 2013, with up to 33.8 percent in the sales and distribution area.
This means more women have jobs in solar than in the conventional energy industry, although women in solar still lag behind their representative 47 percent of the US economy.
Solar jobs aren't the only thriving area in the US economy right now. Wind industry employment produced around 102,500 jobs in 2016, which IRENA projects will grow to 147,000 jobs by 2020.
Jobs in ethanol declined despite increased production due to rising labour productivity; most ethanol-related jobs (about 161,700) were in agriculture, with about 35,000 jobs in actual ethanol production.
Twenty-three percent more biodiesel production in 2016 meant a corresponding 23 percent in jobs, about 61,100 total, with almost 80,000 total in direct and indirect employment in solid biomass.
Finally, there were about 7,000 biogas jobs in the US in 2016.
Jobs in fossil fuels are going away as the sources of the fuels become scarcer and less expensive options become available.
As R&D overcomes more of the stumbling blocks to bringing power from renewable sources into the grid and prices continue to drop, we can expect to see more jobs in renewables.
They are safer, healthier, and more sustainable than jobs in the fossil fuel industry, so this is great for our labour force as well as the planet.
This article was originally published by Futurism. Read the original article.