New Report: Growth of EU solar jobs stagnates as rooftop market slows

• At the end of 2023, the EU solar sector hosted 826,000 jobs - marking a 27% growth since 2022. This reflects the record 50% growth of the annual EU solar market with over 60 GW installed.

• However, SolarPower Europe's annual EU Solar Jobs report warns that the annual growth of solar employment will stall in 2024, with a projected growth of only 0.4% this year.

• The pause in EU solar workforce growth reflects the slower solar deployment growth projected in 2024, especially in the rooftop market, and the challenges experienced by the solar manufacturing sector.

• Despite the slowdown, the EU will continue to grow its solar workforce and offer 1 million jobs by 2027 in line with the sector growth projections, required for Europe's competitiveness, climate, and energy security goals. Accordingly, the report provides a set of policy recommendations to get Europe on track.

• At national level, Germany has moved up from third place in 2022, overtaking Poland as the host of the largest solar workforce in Europe in 2023. Poland is followed by Spain, Italy, Romania, The Netherlands, and France in the top solar workforces in the EU. 

BRUSSELS, Belgium (Tuesday 1st October 2024): The growth of Europe's green jobs is faltering, as the solar sector foresees only a 0.4% workforce increase in 2024. Despite a 27% job number growth in 2023, slower solar deployment and a challenged manufacturing sector limit the growth of the solar workforce from 826,000 in 2023, to 830,000 in 2024. 

The pause in workforce growth is due to slowing solar installations, as the impacts of the energy crisis are lessened, and the roll out of solar is hampered by limited flexibility* in the system. At the upstream end of the value chain, European solar manufacturing has been facing significant challenges in the last 12 months, leading to production pauses and workforce reduction. 

Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of SolarPower Europe (she/her): "Solar can offer more than 1 million workers a meaningful, quality career in their local communities. These job opportunities can’t be taken for granted. We urge the new EU leadership to improve regulatory conditions to add more solar, support EU solar manufacturers, and develop Europe’s strategy around solar skills.”

The annual EU Solar Jobs Report has revised last year’s projection that the EU would reach 1 million solar jobs by 2025. Instead, the report identifies the need to reach this size of workforce by 2027, in order to deliver 88.5 GW of annual solar installations by then, in line with the continent's competitiveness, climate, and energy security goals. 

At a national level, there has also been movement. Reflecting the 104% growth in its solar market from 2022 to 2023, Germany’s solar workforce surged to become the largest workforce in Europe, with 154,000 solar workers. Poland, previously the largest, fell to second place with 113,000 as its job-intense residential market slowed. Spain is in third place, with the emphasis on its less job-intense utility-scale sector delivering more GW capacity for fewer workers.

To ensure that the solar workforce remains ready to deliver the continent’s primary decarbonisation tool through the second half of the decade, the EU Solar Jobs Report makes a number of policy recommendations: 

1. Assessing the exact need for workers and skillsets at national level. 
2. Creating a pan-renewable energy career path.
3. Including an electrification skills strategy under the upcoming EU Electrification Action Plan.
4. Boosting the visibility and allure of STEM education and careers.
5. Retraining workers from legacy-fossil industries. 
6. Supporting the circulation of skills in Europe.
7. Developing solar-specific training within electrical professional training.

Notes

• *The EU Joint Research Centre warns that Europe needs to double its energy system flexibility by 2030 and increase by sevenfold by 2050.
• New modelling shows that more renewables, electrification and flexibility can boost European competitiveness, slashing average day-ahead energy prices by 25% by 2030, and by 33% by 2040. Discover Mission Solar 2040.

What is Flexibility?  

Flexibility is the ability of a consumer, electricity generator, or any other technology (like storage) to adjust how they feed in electricity to the grid, or consume electricity from the grid in response to grid needs or solar availability. Flexibility means less investment is needed for slow-to-build grid infrastructure. We also need to focus on the efficient and smart operation of grids with smart electrified resources. In real life that looks like: a solar power plant coupled with battery storage, or a smart charging station that charges a car when rooftop solar PV is producing abundantly.   

While we need to ramp up battery and heat storage, we should ensure flexibility from the demand side too. We can follow the example of nuclear countries who employ flexibility from the demand side to manage inherently inflexible nuclear production. Since it’s hard to switch nuclear on and off, consumers are encouraged to spread out their demand for electricity. ‘Time-of-Use’ tariffs make it cheaper to use nuclear electricity at night, incentivising electricity consumption at night, when demand is typically lower. This model should be applied to renewables, incentivising consumers to use energy when it is abundant. 

Discover the #LetsFlex campaign. 

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