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Report: US solar workforce sheds 9,800 jobs amid 2017 hangover

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Report: US solar workforce sheds 9,800 jobs amid 2017 hangover

Uncertainty over import tariffs President Donald Trump ultimately put on solar panels, along with a U.S. solar market slump, helped slash about 9,800 net industry jobs in the U.S. in 2017, representing a 4% annual drop, a new report found. The Solar Foundation's latest census on the nation's solar workforce, released Feb. 7, shows the first annual decline in sector employment since the nonprofit group began tracking the industry in 2010.

"Of course, 2016 was an explosive year," Ed Gilliland, senior director at The Solar Foundation and the report's lead author, said in an interview. Following that record-smashing performance, in which solar companies installed more capacity than any other power source, a hangover was perhaps inevitable. When surveyed toward the end of 2016, however, solar companies still projected a 10% jump in 2017.

Instead, the sector lost steam. California, home to the country's largest solar workforce and about 40% of U.S. installed solar capacity, shed 13,636 sector jobs in 2017 as installers stumbled over new time of use rates for distributed solar projects and large-scale project development stalled, in part because utilities are a decade ahead of their current renewable energy purchasing requirements. Massachusetts, the next-largest U.S. solar jobs market, lost 3,053 industry jobs.

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"Clearly, in both California and Massachusetts there was a lot of policy uncertainty," Gilliland said. "Both states waffled for a long time in reaching the final end game on what policies would look like." Nevada also lost 1,807 solar jobs in 2017, many of which could return in 2018 after state regulators in September 2017 reversed a prior decision on net energy metering that had stymied the market.

2017's overall job erosion accompanied a decline in the U.S. solar market. GTM Research, in its latest market report, forecast a 22% drop in annual solar capacity additions in 2017, with 11,800 MW of capacity installed. Despite the challenges, several states experienced strong job growth in 2017, led by Utah, which added 1,762 new solar jobs, and Minnesota, which added 1,383. Arizona and New Jersey both increased solar employment by more than 1,000 jobs, while New York and Tennessee added more than 800 each.

Overall, 29 states created solar jobs in 2017. Even with last year's overall decline, the industry still has seen 168% employment growth since 2010 and employed 250,271 workers in 2017. That includes 129,424 at solar installers, down 5.26% in 2017 but still up nearly 195% since 2010. Manufacturers lost 3.24% of their workforce in 2017, settling at 36,885, an increase of 48% since 2010.

U.S. solar companies projected 5.2% job growth in 2018 when The Solar Foundation surveyed them in the fourth quarter of 2017. That was before Trump imposed 30% import tariffs on solar cells and panels in a bid to protect U.S. solar manufacturers. While some producers applauded the move, notably tariff advocate Solarworld Americas Inc., higher solar equipment prices could cost the industry 23,000 jobs, mostly installers, the Solar Energy Industries Association warned.