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Solar Energy Is the Fastest Growing Industry In the US

Posted by Soulskill on from the exploiting-the-sun's-hard-labor dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "According to Rhone Resch, the last three years have seen the U.S. solar industry go from a start-up to a major industry that is creating well-paying jobs and growing the economy in all 50 states, employing 93,000 Americans in 2010, a number that is expected to grow between 25,000 to 50,000 this year (PDF). In the first quarter of 2011, the solar industry installed 252 megawatts of new solar electric capacity, a 66 percent growth from the same time frame in 2010. Solar energy is creating more jobs per megawatt than any other energy source (PDF) with the capability, according to one study, of generating over 4 million jobs by 2030 with aggressive energy efficiency measures. There are now almost 3,000 megawatts of solar electric energy installed in the U.S., enough to power 600,000 homes. In the manufacturing sector, solar panel production jumped 31 percent. 'The U.S. market is expected to more than double yet again in 2011, installing enough solar for more than 400,000 homes,' writes Resch. 'Last year, the industry set the ambitious yet achievable goal of installing 10 gigawatts annually by 2015 (PDF) – enough to power 2 million more homes each and every year.'"

12 of 410 comments (clear)

  1. J/MW? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Jobs per megawatt? What the hell kind of measure of efficiency is that?!

    1. Re:J/MW? by arpad1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's the kind of measure you use when you don't want to discuss subsidized dollars per job. It's also the kind of measure you use when you don't want to discuss how many non-subsidized jobs it cost to pay for one subsidized job.

      --
      Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
    2. Re:J/MW? by trout007 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      $ per Megawatt hour is the measure of efficiency. Ideally you would want a world where you had unlimited energy that required no money (ie jobs). This is a measure of inefficiency and it shows that Solar is the worst.

      Anyone that claims a project is great because it creates jobs is an idiot. The goal is to have stuff not jobs.

      Batist wrote that all people act as a both a producer and a consumer. In their job they are a producer and in the rest of their life they are a consumer.What do they as a producer want? They want the good or service they producer to be scarce and expensive. What do they as a consumer want? They want the good or service they buy to be abundant and cheap.

      What type of society do you want to live in, one where things are cheap and abundant or scarce and expensive? Any law that favors producers does so by making goods scarce and expensive. Unfortunately like the people that wrote this article it is easy to show how a certain law that favors a producer helps those people. It takes a bit more thinking to explain that the only way to help that producer is by hurting all consumers.

      --
      I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
    3. Re:J/MW? by SirGarlon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It takes a bit more thinking to explain that the only way to help that producer is by hurting all consumers.

      Nonsense. Read up on the basic economic principle of comparative advantage and then write us a 500 word essay on how economics are not a zero-sum game.

      --
      [Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
    4. Re:J/MW? by elrous0 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Exactly, it's the kind of political measure that politicians love to cite when they pump government money into pipe-dream bullshit like solar. It's the same bullshit you used to hear when they were approving big subsidies for duds like hydrogen fuel and ethanol.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  2. How much by georgenh16 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It seems to me, Higher jobs/MW = Higher cost/MW

    How much of this industry growth is fueled by government subsidies?

    1. Re:How much by sheehaje · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I was thinking along the same lines. Seems 93,000 employees for 600,000 houses powered isn't that great of a ration. That's 1 person for 6 houses powered. With the cost of capital equipment and the ongoing maintenance of said equipment, the cost of solar power must be magnitudes higher than fossil fuels.

    2. Re:How much by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Your comparison is meaningless. You should be comparing the 93000 employees with the growth rate of solar energy installations, not currently installed effect. 3000 MW already installed require very little maintainance, but new installations require a lot of work per MW. Research, production and installation. A lot of people are employed in the heavily subsidised coal industry as well, but mostly in maintainance and coal production. Not as much in building new power plants.

  3. I've got good news and bad news and more bad news. by hey! · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The good news: Solar energy is the fastest growing industry in the US.

    The bad news for solar energy: Solar energy is the fastest growing industry in the US.

    The bad news for the US: Solar energy is the fastest growing industry in the US.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  4. Rats flock to government subsidies by argStyopa · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Any industry heavy with government subsidies - defense, social welfare, medicine, and now 'renewables' - attracts opportunists of both the legitimate and illegitimate sort.

    Legitimate businesses are interested because they know that having a politically-attractive industry can make a lot of low-/no-interest money available as well as making the government paperwork (permits, etc.) all move much quicker than usual. Finally, it's a truism that once established government programs almost never die (for God's sake, the TVA's REA is still alive and flourishing - conveniently renamed to the RUS "Rural Utilities Service" - to legitimize its ever-spreading 'responsibilities' hahaha).

    Illegitimate business (con men, criminals, etc.) are attracted because government investment typically now means at least dollars in the 10^6 range, that until they reach 10^9 these numbers are considered 'trivial' and barely worth notice/mention by Federal agencies (how many pallets of $$billions have been untraceably 'lost' in Iraq/Afghanistan?) - a perfect environment for fraud.

    --
    -Styopa
  5. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  6. Re:you need to look at subsidies per megawatt by clonan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Without the federal subsidies AND the special liability protection offered to Coal, oil and gas they would fail.

    If you wiped out all subsidies, Coal, Oil and Gas WOULD be cheaper slightly. Afterall, they have 125 years of infrastructure built.

    People said the same thing about thoes fancy horseless carriages and the new fangled steam-ships.

    Subsidies are important to give new and promising technology an opportunity in the market. Solar is still a baby. We are every year finding new and dramatic ways to improve solar. It will probably be a baby for another 20 years. Coal, Oil and gas haven't been babes for 50+ years. We have seen a small improvement in efficiency but thats it.

    Once a technology is no longer in development it should be stripped of subsidies and protections and allowed to stand on its own. Coal, Oil and gas never have done this.