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    • 4 min read

Solar Jobs by State: Future Growth Projections for Your Career in Solar

The solar industry continues to boom across the United States as nation-wide, we installed more solar in 2023 than ever before, despite temporary setbacks like California’s NEM 3.0 which slowed consumer demand for solar.  Each state presents its own opportunities and challenges given state and local incentives, frequency of sunshine, customer knowledge and willingness to buy, and many other factors. 


California has led the charge in solar and Texas is rapidly expanding its capacity, faster than California was in its earlier days.  Almost all states are expecting growth to skyrocket in the next 5 years as solar has become the cheapest form of electricity.  We dove into data from the SEIA to understand the current state of solar, and the implications for where the most job growth will come from in the next 5-10 years.


US Solar Capacity by State

You’ll likely have seen a version of the chart below that shows the total MW installed by state.  California has 46,875 MW of solar installed, Texas 22,872 MW, and Florida 13,912 MW.  These 3 states account for almost half of the total US solar capacity.  


If we look at it on a per capita basis, we start to see states that have achieved a similar level of solar penetration to California.  Across the US, we average 0.52 kW per person of solar capacity.  For reference, the per capita consumption of electricity is ~35 kWh per day.  With a capacity factor of 25%, we’d need about 6 kW per person for self-sustainable solar power.   

Nevada, not California, generates the most solar per capita at 2.0 kW / person, and it's not even close!  This is driven by large utility projects like the Copper Mountain Solar Facility (which generates 802 MW by itself!) in the less populous state.  Hawaii takes advantage of its sunshine at 1.26 kw / person, while smaller states like Rhode Island and Vermont outperform vs. the national average.


State Solar Growth: The Next 5 Years vs. Today

Now, looking ahead to your career, you might be wondering where the most potential for growth will be given the solar boom.  We can look at the projected growth over the next 5 years and compare that to the current baseline today.

This is a staggering chart if we look at the line showing the growth as a % of today’s capacity - 38 of 51 states (including DC) are expecting to more than double their total solar capacity in the next 5 years alone.


Texas will almost triple its capacity today and will be close to surpassing California in 5 years time.  Florida, Arizona, and Nevada, all states that already have massive solar deployment, are all going to more than double their capacity.  States like Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, and New Mexico are going to more than triple their capacity. 


If you are looking to grow in your career, any high growth state can present a lot of opportunities.  These can be great options to consider as someone with little-to-no experience as you will learn quickly and have the opportunity to contribute outside of your role to learn.  With the amount of expected growth, you’ll have a great chance to quickly progress to more senior positions in order to manage the demand.  


Which states are best to get a solar job? 

While all states are going to present great opportunities for your solar career if you’re willing to put in the work, we can start to identify which states will need solar professionals the most. 


We’ve created a helpful metric by examining the total number of solar workers in the state divided by the expected installation volume in the next 4 years.  Across the US, this averages 1.3, so we’d need an average of 1.3 workers to install 1 MW in the next 5 years.  Note that is far from a “perfect” metric as the number of solar jobs is expected to grow significantly, but it is a helpful one to consider if you are willing to relocate to a new state.  Let’s chart it by state below:


The dotted line represents the overall average, so states below the line are those where there are significantly fewer workers per MW of growth than expected based on the nation-wide average.  This means there will undoubtedly be many new job opportunities in these states in the next 5 years.  


States above the average do not necessarily imply that they are risky states for solar employment, as they may have different distributions of utility-scale projects (employs fewer employees / MW than residential), and states like California require more technicians given the history of solar fields.  


Here are top 5 states that have the largest discrepancies between the amount of solar that will be added in the next 5 years and the number of workers today:


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