ICYMI: Great discussion over the weekend on the POLITICO Energy/Global Translations podcast about different approaches to workforce training and re-skilling programs around the world. The Politico episode kicks off with an interview with Allison Dempsey who parlayed her time in a construction training program run by West Virginia Women Work into a new career managing rooftop solar installation with the company Solar Holler.
The renewable energy industry faces a shortage of skilled labor that will hamper its growth once the economy fully reopens. The U.S. solar industry alone employed nearly 250,000 workers in 2019, and the industry is expanding rapidly driven by falling generation and manufacturing costs, and increased popularity with homeowners. In the five-year period between 2014 and 2019, solar employment increased 44 percent, five times faster than job growth in the overall U.S. economy, according to The Solar Foundation.
Jobs in solar and other renewable energy sectors will only increase as more and more states pursue clean energy goals, not to mention the potential for new national standards to be adopted at the federal level. The need for a trained workforce has never been greater. Many of the new employment opportunities are occurring in traditional energy-producing states that have been losing other jobs, including Arizona, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas, Utah and Virginia.
Check out the POLITICO Energy/Global Translations podcast.