One out of every 78 new jobs is in the solar industry

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Indeed!

The company I work for doubled in size in 2014. These are all good jobs which can't be outsourced and are bringing or keeping quality people here, in our little state. Heck, the governor recognized one of my employees as well as a second employee from our company during his inaugural speech last week. I thought that was pretty cool and made me feel like a proud Papa. :cool:
 
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and my son just landed one of these installer jobs. Lots of applicants for only a couple of openings. Great local company to work for. This solar thing might work out after all :)
 
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and my son just landed one of these installer jobs. Lots of applicants for only a couple of openings. Great local company to work for. This solar thing might work out after all :)
Congrats to you and to your son! On the other hand, he might have picked a better time of year to take take job that puts him on rooftops. My hat is off to all of the folks out there installing in the northern winter.
 
And highly distributed geographically.
Every little town has a plumber, an electrician, a few carpenters, and... a solar installer?
Our local solar installer that put in both of our systems went from a crew of 4 four years ago to 35 and hiring now. It's great to see them growing.
 
Every little town has a plumber, an electrician, a few carpenters, and... a solar installer?
Why not? If the PV system materials prices keep falling and the price of electricity keeps climbing... I'm sure the neighbors in the small town that I'm going to install my next PV system in will start asking questions about that "solar gizmo" on my roof, the day I start installing it.
 
I read this and scratch my head......I personally don't know one person around me with solar! On the other hand it is booming with gas and oil! I work for a large gas company and have installed a few solar powered GC's and Eagle units, but that is the most I see of solar in my area.
 
There is a LOT of variation state to state....some states offer incentives on top of the fed tax rebates, some states have more expensive electricity, or both. The net result is those states are 5-10 years ahead of other states that don't do those things.

PA is kinda in the middle....they allocate a pot of money for solar incentives from time to time, and when it gets exhausted, its gone. Like its a cost/charity. Not really a great way to develop a new industry! Seems around here the big roofing companies dabble in solar (they revert to just doing rooves when the funding/business is bad) and the prices are not very good.

For numbers, California is a leader in the US, getting close to 5% of its total electrical energy from solar (not 5% peak power, 5% total energy). If it was a separate country, CA would be the 7th largest economy in the world, so this is a big deal. On a national basis, the US is at 0.5% solar energy in 2014, about 160 kWh/year for every household in the US, and still growing v fast.

That said, half of the states are darn near to zero solar energy.
 
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That said, half of the states are darn near to zero solar energy.

Last statistic I saw on it said that my electric utility (one of the largest in the "Sunshine State") had more than 4 million customers and of those 4M customers, only 3,750 with PV systems. My utility and the others in the state also managed to convince the public service commission to discontinue the small solar rebate program they had been offering. Now, my utility is trying to buy up an electric utility in Hawaii, and also get into the fracking business.
 
Last statistic I saw on it said that my electric utility (one of the largest in the "Sunshine State") had more than 4 million customers and of those 4M customers, only 3,750 with PV systems. My utility and the others in the state also managed to convince the public service commission to discontinue the small solar rebate program they had been offering. Now, my utility is trying to buy up an electric utility in Hawaii, and also get into the fracking business.
FP&L?
 
I saw the 'boom and bust' cycle happen in the UK when I was there with a lot of renewable/energy efficiency incentives. When the incentives are there for the small businesses actually doing the work, the businesses grow and fast. Once the politicians change their minds and cut off the rebates, those businesses often go bust. Sad.
 
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