Poland was the EU’s biggest solar jobs market last year, thanks to a national rooftop incentive program, but Germany’s push to repatriate solar manufacturing will help the bloc’s PV powerhouse back to the number one slot in three years’ time, according to SolarPower Europe.
With solar supporting 466,000 full-time jobs in the EU last year, trade body SolarPower Europe has predicted the industry will be behind the equivalent of 530,000 roles in 2022.
That is one of the headline figures in the body’s EU Solar Jobs Report 2022, published this week.
Under SolarPower Europe’s medium scenario for development of the industry – which appears the most accurate when comparing the actual figures with the last medium scenario prediction from the trade group – Europe will need more than 1 million solar workers in 2030, prompting the trade body to warn: “The skilled labor gap may well become the key bottleneck that stops Europe from reaching its energy security and climate goals.”
The membership body used the report to propose tax deductions to attract individuals to train as solar installers, and to persuade companies to provide skills; to call for a planned EU solar mandate for new public buildings to be extended to all structures which have their external surface renovated; and to demand a ban on oil and gas boilers.
The labor-intensive nature of residential rooftop PV meant Poland was Europe’s biggest solar employer last year, with its industry supporting around 113,000 positions – 24% of the EU total – helped also by the nation’s low labor costs.
The figures
Germany supported 87,000 solar industry roles in 2021; Spain 66,000; the Netherlands 36,000; France 33,000; and Italy 24,000; with Greece the fifth biggest solar jobs marketplace, with the equivalent of 34,000 positions. Spain and France were the only EU member states where utility scale solar supported more jobs than rooftop in 2021.
SolarPower Europe predicted – again under its medium-ambition scenario – Germany would support 204,000 solar jobs in 2026, helped by a 23 GW-per-year solar market and a push on PV manufacturing. The energy crisis will ensure Poland retains 102,000 roles in 2026, despite the planned closure of a rooftop solar incentive scheme which has rocket-fueled its PV sector, the trade body added.
REPowerEU scenario could double number of solar jobs in EU by 2030
Under the REPowerEU scenario to install 750GWdc of solar across the European Union (EU) by 2030, the bloc will require 1 million solar workers, double the numbers from 2021.
According to the 2022 EU Solar Jobs report from trade body SolarPower Europe (SPE), reaching 1TW of installed solar in the EU by 2030 could add an additional 500,000 jobs.
However, a major bottleneck in several member states is a lack of installers to satisfy the increasing demand for solar power, both from citizens and businesses that are “desperately looking for rapid and tailored protection against skyrocketing power and gas prices”, according to the report.
Even in countries with fewer administrative barriers, Europeans have reported waits of up to one year to install solar rooftop systems, which increase even further if coupled with battery storage or heat pumps.
Nonetheless, the EU’s solar industry employed 466,000 full-time employees in 2021, a 108,000 increase from 2020, with the majority of the jobs (79%) linked to deployment. This year the industry could see jobs increasing by 30% to 606,000, if installed capacity reaches 40GW.
Both manufacturing and operations and maintenance (O&M) contributed 9% last year, while decommissioning and recycling remained a minor source of employment with a 3% share.
Poland was the largest provider of EU solar jobs, with 113,000, due to the high share of positions coming from the residential PV segment, which accounted for 90% of solar jobs in the country.
Germany had the second highest number jobs in the EU, with nearly 87,000, while Spain had almost 66,000 jobs – most of which were in the utility-scale segment.
The other top countries with the most jobs in the solar industry were the Netherlands, Greece, France and Italy, in that order.
Poland had the most solar jobs out of any EU country last year. Image: SolarPower Europe.
In its five-year outlook, the report puts Germany in the lead in terms of solar jobs with more than 203,000, while Poland would lose some of its workforce in the coming years but still remain second with 103,000 solar jobs.
SPE’s projections for 2027 could see Romania have the seventh-highest number of solar jobs in the EU, with almost 43,000.
Rafaele Rossi, head of market intelligence at SolarPower Europe, said: “We expect the Romanian market to reach the gigawatt-scale by then, and a relevant share of rooftop PV system and the availability of labour costs, compared to other EU markets of similar size, will make it to join this group [of top seven].”
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