Alberta, where the first of Proteus Power’s projects are located, has seen a lot of co-located projects recently. Image: Richard Pasquale Ricciardi.

Recently-formed company Proteus Power plans to develop and build over 3GW of solar, wind and battery energy storage projects in North America.

The company recently set up its US headquarters in The Woodlands, Texas, and has a target pipeline totalling 5,250GWh of energy capacity and 3GW of power. It formed in October 2021.

Proteus is backed by investor Pelion Green Future and is currently evaluating over 30 renewable projects in its initial target areas of Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Alberta, Canada. It has started with three solar projects in Alberta with a total capacity of 234 MW, co-located with 97 MW of battery storage.

According to Proteus’ website, the first, a 30MW standalone PV site, is set to come online in Q4 2023. The project rights were secured through the acquisition of the original developer, Eco Renewables, announced in May 2022.

The second, a 24MW PV/10MW BESS site, will come online in Q3 2024. The third and largest, with 180MW of PV and a 75MW BESS, will enter operations in 2025.

Proteus said its strategy hinges on developing “exceptional assets that will allow the company and its partners to invest in bankable renewable energy projects that are strategically placed to secure long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) with corporate or industrial purchasers.” The company will manage the entire project value chain.

“We have assembled a tremendous team with an invaluable network and expertise and are very excited to partner with Pelion Green Future to deliver an excellent portfolio of renewable energy projects”, said Mike Lambros, founder and CEO of Proteus.

Its CEO, COO and chief development officer have a combined 70-plus years of cumulative experience in project development finance totalling US$7.1 billion in transactions.

Pelion Green Future owns several companies active in renewable energy project development and optimisation, and Proteus lists (amongst several others) battery storage optimisation and trading platform Entrix as an affiliated company.

Alberta has been something of a hotbed of solar-plus-storage activity this year. In June, developer Westbridge added another co-located project with a 100MW BESS to its portfolio in the state.

In March, Greengate Power Corporation announced three co-located projects that will add 300MW of battery storage to the state’s grid. The month prior, vanadium flow battery company Invinity bagged an 8MWh order for a co-located project.

And in a less common form of hybridisation, Power Company TransAlta announced plans to pair a BESS with a hydroelectric plant in January.

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The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Origis Energy and Excelsior Energy Capital have started construction on the Skyhawk Solar project, a 100 MW solar facility in Obion County that will supply carbon-free energy to Google’s hyperscale data centers in Clarksville, Tenn. and Jackson County, Ala.

Skyhawk Solar was developed through TVA’s Green Invest, a utility-scale solar solution that offers business and industry an effective, timely and cost-competitive solar solution to aggressively meet sustainability goals. The program matches customer-driven commitments for renewable energy with new utility-scale solar facilities to be constructed in the Tennessee Valley.

“TVA has the cleanest power system in the southeast and we are helping attract sustainability-focused companies that bring jobs and investments to this region,” says Doug Perry, senior vice president at TVA’s Commercial Energy Solutions. “We are proud to collaborate with Google, Origis and Excelsior to bring more solar generation on the grid for a greener region.”

Skyhawk Solar is projected to be operational by the end of 2022. Origis will operate and maintain the facility.

“Skyhawk Solar is generating a waterfall of economic benefits in the Obion County community,” states Johan Vanhee, Origis Energy’s chief commercial and procurement officer. “The net economic benefits include $16.9 million in estimated direct local economic benefits during construction and $30 million estimated over the life of the project. Skyhawk Solar helps power Google’s significant local data center investments with clean energy. The leadership and foresight of TVA and Google to decarbonize the grid is and will continue to pay dividends for the environment and local economy for years to come. We look forward to serving Google and TVA alongside the Skyhawk project owner Excelsior.”

“The Excelsior Energy Capital team is very pleased to partner with Origis Energy to provide TVA and Google with carbon-free solar to meet their collective clean energy objectives,” adds Chris Moakley, managing partner at Excelsior Energy Capital.

Google has announced a goal to operate on 24/7 carbon-free energy globally by 2030. Solar projects like Skyhawk will help the company as it works toward meeting this goal.

“Skyhawk Solar is an important step towards achieving Google’s 24/7 carbon-free energy goal in Tennessee and Alabama,” comments Amanda Peterson Corio, global head of data center energy at Google. “We’re excited to continue working with our partners on projects like this, which will help expand clean energy and decarbonize electricity grids to benefit all.”

Origis Energy and Excelsior Energy Capital have selected Wanzek Construction Inc. to construct the project.

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US utility-scale battery storage installations over time. Image: ACP.

Some 5GWh of utility-scale battery energy storage was deployed in the first half of 2022, up one third while wind and solar fell 50-70%, according to American Clean Power (ACP).

In the trade body’s quarterly report covering all renewable energy resources, ACP said that 14 new storage projects were installed in quarter two totalling 992MW/2,468MWh of new battery storage capacity, up 13% year-on-year.

758MW/2,537MWh was installed in Q1, up 173%. Wood Mackenzie had a slightly lower figure of 2,339MWh installed in Q1 in its own figures.

That means that a total of 1,751MW/5,015MWh of utility-scale battery energy storage was deployed in the first half of the year. ACP did not spell out the year-on-year growth this equates to, but a basic calculation using the two quarterly figures shows deployments grew by about a third.

The largest project by power installed in Q2 was Vistra’s DeCordova Energy Storage in Texas, a one-hour 260MW system which is the state’s largest, while the largest by capacity was the 800MWh Diablo Energy Storage developed by LS Power in California.

These installations mean that by the end of June, the US’ cumulative utility-scale battery storage deployments totalled 6,471MW of power and 16,792MWh of energy capacity.

Although both quarterly figures were positive, the strongest on-record was the 1GW-plus of deployment that was achieved in the last quarter of 2021 as per ACP’s annual report, covered by Energy-Storage.news.

Some 327MW of hybrid (co-located) solar and storage capacity was brought online in the quarter. Solar and storage hybrid resources account for three quarters of the 9,023MW of hybrid capacity in the US, the ACP said.

While battery storage deployments grew over the first half of the year, overall clean power deployments fell by 25%, the ACP said, the largest drop in installations over a six-month period since 2018.

The fall in Q2 was even more dramatic at 55%. Battery storage, the only sector to experience growth, accounted for 31% of the 3,188MW of clean power installed during the period. Wind installations fell 78% and solar fell 53% year-on-year.

Part of this is down to supply chain constraints and grid connection issues causing project delays. There are now 32GW of delayed projects according to the ACP, of which 64% is solar, 13% is storage and 23% is wind.

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LG ES is partnered with RWE to supply North American solar-plus-storage projects with battery storage. Image: LG Energy Solution.

LG Energy Solution has seen a drop in its profitability during the second quarter of this year, which according to the company’s CFO was largely caused by industry headwinds.

Nonetheless, while profits fell 24.4% from the previous quarter, sales remained strong, and revenues rose 16.8%. Year-on-year however that equates to a drop in profitability from Q2 2021 of 73% and drop in revenues of 1.2%, although the company did note that Q2 2021 saw it receive a couple of one-off payments that accounted for higher than usual profitability.

Revenues were KRW5.071 trillion (US$3.86 billion) for Q2 2022, while operating profits were KRW195.6 billion (US$149 million) in the reported period.

Despite some challenges, LG Energy Solution (LG ES) has revised its annual revenue forecast for the year upwards and has offered some updates to its near and long-term strategies.  

The company, which is active in automotive, IT and energy storage system (ESS) battery market segments, has not issued a breakout of figures by industry segment, although Energy-Storage.news has asked LG ES for ESS figures.  

“This quarter’s profitability has shown moderate drop, mainly due the impacts from lockdown measures in China, global supply chain disruptions, and the time gap between the actual increase in material costs and applying them to selling prices,” CFO Chang Sil Lee said in a conference call to discuss financial results.

“Nevertheless, steady growth in revenue was possible thanks to the strong sales of cylindrical cells for EV, as well as successfully passing through major metal price hikes to the battery prices.”

The previously set KRW19.2 trillion revenue target for the 2022 full year has now been upped to KRW22 trillion, versus 2021 annual consolidated revenues of KRW17.9 trillion.

While it earned KRW9.4 trillion during the first half of this year, LG Energy Solution expects revenues in the second half to reach KRW12.6 trillion.

H2 2022 revenue growth is largely expected to come from an increase in OEM contracts, the ramp-up of a battery production plant in Ohio, US, by LG Energy Solution’s joint venture (JV) with General Motors, Ultium Cells, as well as the cost pass-through mentioned by CFO Chang Sil Lee.

The downstream battery arm of LG Group, LG ES went public through an IPO in January this year, listing shares worth more than US$10 billion on the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI).

In its first results announcement since that listing, the company said in April that a 2.2% downturn in revenues for Q1 2022 had been caused largely by ongoing supply chain challenges as well as the war caused by Russia’s Ukraine invasion.

North American production shift

The company is going to focus more on the North American market, which is growing at a faster rate than the European or Asian regions where it also has a manufacturing presence.

It is targeting for North America to host the biggest share of its production by 2025 in fact. By that time LG Energy Solution wants to have 45% of its footprint there, with 35% in Asia and 25% in Europe.

This would be a big turnaround from today, where 59% is in Asia, 34% in Europe and just 7% in North America, according to the company.

It intends to continue developing and making both pouch and cylindrical form factor cells.

In its premium segment, pouch cells will largely be single crystal NCMA cathode and silicon anode-based, while in mainstream production, LG ES will focus on lithium iron phosphate (LFP) and manganese-rich battery chemistries.

As well as attempting mass production of 4680 cylindrical cells, the company will also look to develop next-gen batteries with technologies like polymer or sulfide-based solid state.

It is also targeting new business lines such as battery-as-a-service and energy-as-a-service, while it aims to have smarter automation and production defect detection in its factories and better fault detection and analytics capabilities for its battery management systems (BMS).   

Earlier this year LG ES acquired NEC Energy Solutions, the energy storage system division of Japan’s NEC Corporation, through which LG ES said it sought more involvement in the downstream end of the ESS market, although since the acquisition there have been no public announcements of projects or the strategic direction the business will take.

The company will continue to establish long-term materials supply partnerships to stabilise its supply chain, while developing capabilities in recycling and reuse of batteries.

In all, it targets a tripling of revenues and achieving a double-digit profit margin over five years.

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Tesla Megapack BESS units caught fire during testing of the 350MW Victorian Big Battery in Australia. The situation was quickly brought under control and only two Megapacks out of more than 200 on site were consumed by flames. Image: Country Fire Association.

Stakeholders have a few days left to take part in a survey on lithium-ion based battery storage system safety hosted by the US Fire Protection Research Foundation.

The foundation is research affiliate to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). Although based in the US, NFPA is a global non-profit organisation working to reduce exposure to dangers from fire and related areas like electrical safety.

NFPA 855, a safety standard for the installation of energy storage systems is widely used in North America and other markets as one of the key certifications required for projects and technologies to get funding and permitting since its launch in 2019.

It ranks highly in importance alongside other certification and test standards like UL 1973, which tests energy storage systems (ESS) for their ability to withstand abuse and UL 9540A which tests how easy or difficult it is to put batteries into thermal runaway and what happens when they are.

NFPA and the Fire Protection Research Foundation’s international questionnaire survey will help guide research into to risk assessment and mitigation strategies for battery storage safety. The deadline to respond is 31 July.

NFPA noted that battery storage deployments are growing exponentially around the world. Although fire protection and emergency response services already work closely with system providers to formulate safety and response strategies, there are still gaps in knowledge regarding safety of lithium-ion batteries, the group said.

The survey is part of a wider effort launched by NFPA and its research group, which was launched in November 2021 assessing the different technologies that fall under the category of lithium-ion battery energy storage system (BESS), analysing any failures that occur at installations around the world, identifying and analysing mitigation strategies. From there, the programme seeks to direct the industry and its many partners to address the gaps in understanding that are identified.

There’s an urgent need to do that, Paul Rogers, a US firefighter with nearly 30 years’ experience and now an energy storage safety expert, said in an interview with our quarterly journal PV Tech Power, published at the beginning of this year.

Now a founding principal at consultancy Energy Safety Response Group (ESRG), Rogers said that while ESS fire events are likely to be very rare, they can pose serious risks when they do occur. Similarly, the vast majority of the ESS industry is being responsible about how they site, install and use their systems and the local authorities and first responders that work with them are working hard to learn as much as they can about these relatively new technologies.

However, Rogers said, codes and standards can be extremely complex, and the industry perhaps needs to make more effort to communicate with all of its stakeholders.  

At this year’s ees Europe trade show in May, several sources commented that safety is the single most important topic customers want to be reassured about when it comes to battery storage.

Respond to the Fire Protection Research Foundation survey here.

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Mike Lambros

Proteus Power, a recently formed renewable energy project development company, has begun its North American business operations with the establishment of its U.S. headquarters in The Woodlands, Texas. Led by industry veterans and financially backed by global clean energy investor, Pelion Green Future, Proteus Power has a target to develop and construct over 3 GW of solar, wind and battery energy storage projects in North America.

Proteus is currently evaluating over 30 renewable projects in its initial target areas of Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Alberta, Canada. Proteus has started the development of three solar projects in Alberta with a total capacity of 234 MW co-located with 97 MW of battery storage. 

The management team is led by Mike Lambros as CEO, Randy Etheridge as COO and Dan Phillips as chief development officer.

“We have assembled a tremendous team with an invaluable network and expertise and are very excited to partner with Pelion Green Future to deliver an excellent portfolio of renewable energy projects,” says Lambros, who is also the founder of Proteus Power.

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Hecate Energy, a developer, owner and operator of renewable power projects and energy storage solutions, has received state approval of its siting application for the 500 MW Cider Solar Farm in New York.

The ruling from the New York State Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) makes Cider Solar Farm the largest solar energy generation project ever permitted in the state. It is also the first permit issued by ORES for a project whose application was initially filed with the new state office; all previous ORES-permitted projects initially filed their permit applications under the older Article 10 siting process.

“This permit marks a major milestone, not only for Hecate Energy, but in making meaningful progress toward New York State’s ambitious climate goals,” says Harrison Luna, Hecate Energy’s project developer for the Cider Solar Farm. “We are appreciative of the support and coordination for the Cider Solar Project that we received from civic leadership of the Oakfield and Elba town governments. Hecate Energy experienced a positive collaborative interaction with ORES during the permitting process, which was key in advancing this project.”

Cider Solar Farm is to be built on nearly 3,000 acres across the towns of Elba and Oakfield. Hecate Energy anticipates starting construction on the solar farm by 2023. When complete, the project will be interconnected to the New York State electricity grid through the Dysinger-New Rochester 345kV transmission line. The solar farm will be capable of supplying 920,000 MWh of renewable electricity per year.

“Cider Solar Farm represents a significant $500 million private infrastructure investment in Western New York – not only will this project create hundreds of local jobs, but it will also directly fund local governments, schools, and community services like the fire department and ambulance squad,” states Luna.

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Heather Zichal

American Clean Power’s (ACP) Clean Power Quarterly Market Report Q2 2022 shows the rate of clean energy deployment slowed substantially in the second quarter as policy headwinds, economic factors facing the industry and trade issues have impacted project development and increased the backlog of new project delays.

During the second quarter, the industry saw a 55% decline in project installations from the same period in 2021, with 3,188 MW of utility-scale clean power capacity installed. This makes the second quarter the lowest quarter for clean energy capacity additions since the third quarter of 2019.

“We have been warning about the storm of policy and economic headwinds the clean power industry is facing, and this is a step in the wrong direction,” says ACP CEO Heather Zichal. “Congressional inaction and uncertainty on long-term tax policy, tariff and trade restrictions, and transmission constraints all impact the demand for clean energy at a time when we need to be rapidly scaling up development. Our member companies are ready to make the investment decisions necessary for building America’s clean energy economy, but the current business and policy environment is slowing the rate of deployment.”

Additional market headwinds impacting the rate of development include commodity prices, COVID pandemic-related delays, supply chain issues and increased operating costs.

Energy storage was the only technology to experience growth, with a 13% increase in installations. Solar installations were down 53% compared to the same quarter in 2021. Concerningly, onshore wind installations were 78% lower when compared to the same time period last year.

Project developers brought 60 new projects online to the grid in the second quarter, representing $4.3 billion in capital investments. The industry installed 3,188 MW of new capacity from 41 solar projects, 14 storage projects and 5 wind projects across 27 states. Total installations for the year are now 9,795 MW, compared to more than 13,000 MW of projects brought online in the first half of 2021.

The total operating clean power capacity in the country is now over 211 GW – enough to power 58 million homes in America. Broken down by technology, operating clean power capacity is made up of 139,143 MW of land-based wind; 65,749 MW of solar; 42 MW of offshore wind; and 6,471 MW/16,792 MWh of battery storage capacity.

The myriad challenges facing the industry continue to impact project development. While the industry currently has a record volume of potential clean power capacity being developed, the rate of growth is slowing. The project runway grew by just 4% in the first quarter and 3% in the second quarter – much slower than the 12% average quarterly growth experienced throughout 2021.

During the second quarter, the industry started construction on 3,964 MW of projects, while 7,000 MW entered advanced development. There are 1,155 projects in the pipeline with a total capacity of 128,889 MW. This includes 40,656 MW under construction and 88,233 MW in advanced development.

Since the end of 2021 more than 32.4 GW of clean power projects have been delayed and have not yet achieved commercial operation. That’s enough energy to power 6.5 million homes and support 110,000 jobs, and it represents $45 million in investment – much of which flows to local communities.

Solar projects are the most prone to delays, with nearly 21 GW of solar projects currently delayed – much of which is a direct result of misguided trade actions. Solar accounts for 64% of all projects delayed. Wind makes up 17% of total delays in the first quarter of 2022, and battery storage makes up 21% of delays.

This was compounded by project delays from the first quarter, which included more than 7 GW of delayed projects. An additional 8 GW of clean energy slated to come online in the second quarter was also delayed.

Despite regulatory headwinds, solar continues to be the leading technology in the pipeline, accounting for 57% of all clean power capacity in development. Land-based wind accounts for 18% of the pipeline, offshore wind represents 14%, and storage accounts for the remaining 11%.

The second quarter also saw a decline from the prior quarter in terms of projects starting construction or entering advanced stages of development – a key indicator for additional challenges throughout the remainder of the year.

The prospects for these projects moving from development to constructed deployment are unclear without action from Congress.

Texas leads all states in development activity with 23,665 MW underway, representing 18% of the total project development pipeline. Other leading states for project development include California (13,710 MW), New York (10,809 MW), Indiana (7,099 MW) and Virginia (6,456 MW).

The largest projects to come online in the second quarter include the 260 MW DeCordova Energy Storage project in Granbury, Texas. Owned by Vistra Corp., the facility consists of over 3,000 lithium-ion battery modules.

RWE’s Hickory Park Solar + Storage was the largest hybrid project to come online this quarter. Located in Georgia, the project includes 196 MW of solar capacity and 40 MW/80 MWh of battery storage capacity.

The 201 MW Golden Hills Wind project, owned and developed by Avangrid, was the largest wind project to come online. The Oregon project utilizes Vestas and GE Renewables wind turbines.

A bright spot in the report is the increase of clean power procurement. Procurement activity picked up during the quarter as companies announced 8,502 MW of new power purchase agreements (PPAs) – a 35% increase from the previous quarter, and a 27% increase from the second quarter of 2021.

Solar remains the dominant technology of choice for new PPAs, accounting for 71% of all PPA announcements in the second quarter, and 78% of PPA announcements for the year.

Commercial and Industrial (C&I) buyers accounted for 5,654 MW of new PPAs this quarter, a notable 71% increase from the previous quarter. The top corporate purchasers in the second quarter were Amazon (3,200 MW), Microsoft (615 MW) and Verizon (525 MW).

There was a decline in PPA announcements from utilities, with 1,095 MW of contracted capacity announced. Despite the drop in utility PPA announcements, it continues to be a seller’s market for renewable energy. Demand continues to grow as utilities seek to decarbonize their electricity mix, while more and more corporations seek to achieve their sustainability goals.

The top utility PPAs announced this quarter include CenterPoint Energy (335 MW), South Carolina Public Service Authority (205 MW) and CMS Energy (150 MW).

Read the full report here.

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Image: Cypress Creek Renewables.

Developer Cypress Creek Renewables has acquired four standalone battery energy storage system (BESS) projects totalling 400MW/600MWh in Texas, US, from Black Mountain Energy Storage (BMES).

The projects have a nameplate power of 100MW each and are located in the market run by Texas’ main grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).

Cypress Creek will continue project development, entitlement, engineering, procurement, financing, construction, and will operate the 400MW/600MWh portfolio once they become operational, which is expected to occur in 2024.

The projects were acquired from Black Mountain Energy Storage (BMES), part of energy development group Black Mountain. A press release announcing the sale to Cypress Creek did not specify the names of the projects, but a BMES announcement in March this year said the company had signed an exclusivity agreement with an unnamed company for four 100MWac units in development – Brazos Bend BESS, Seven Flags BESS, Third Coast BESS and Tierra Seca BESS.

A few weeks ago, BMES sold two 100MW/200MWh projects to Canadian Solar subsidiary Recurrent Energy, also in Texas and also due for completion in 2024. BMES has not named or provided details on projects other than these six it has sold. But, whilst commenting on the sale to Recurrent, BMES CEO said the company has “….3.0GW of optimally sited ERCOT BESS projects in the hopper behind these two.”

Nationally, Cypress Creek has developed more than 11GW of solar to date and has a 15GW solar and storage pipeline. In the ERCOT market, Cypress Creek has developed 5GW of solar and storage assets. The developer has been owned by global private equity firm EQT since July last year.

“ERCOT is an incredibly dynamic power market, and standalone storage assets will continue to provide opportunities to increase grid reliability through flexible and dispatchable resources,” said Jack Murray, director of M&A at Cypress Creek.

Texas is the second-fastest growing market for BESS deployments after California. BESS projects derive revenues from energy trading – the market has no centralised capacity auctions – around congested nodes alongside grid ancillary support services, mainly regulation reserve service (RRS) and a sub-set within that group called fast frequency response (RRS-FFR).

The market is moving from one-hour to two-hour systems as energy trading grows as a proportion of revenues and BMES’ projects reflect this shift.

As was the case with the Recurrent deal, this transaction was facilitated through the LevelTen Energy Asset Marketplace, a platform connecting renewable energy projects and with buyers.

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Larry Sherwood

Solar energy jobs rose in 47 states and increased 9% nationwide from 2020 to 2021 to a total of 255,037 solar workers, according to the Interstate Renewable Energy Council’s (IREC) annual National Solar Jobs Census.

This job growth took place in a year of record solar installations driven by increased demand for renewable energy among residential customers, municipalities, businesses and electric utilities. Overall, the solar industry added 21,563 jobs in 2021, with more than two-thirds of these new jobs (14,350) at installation and project development firms.

“America’s solar industry came back strong from the pandemic to expand the clean energy workforce across all regions of the country,” states Larry Sherwood, president and CEO at IREC. “The future remains uncertain in light of the supply chain disruptions, trade issues, and stalled federal policy in the first part of 2022. There is potential for unprecedented job growth in the coming years if federal, state, and local leaders take action to expand clean energy use and address climate change.”

Over the past decade, U.S. solar employment has more than doubled from 105,145 jobs in 2011 to 255,037 jobs in 2021. The most significant growth has taken place in the installation and project development sector, where employment more than tripled since 2011 to reach 168,960 jobs in 2021.

At the state level, California continues to lead in the total number of solar jobs with 75,712 jobs as of 2021, followed by Florida (11,761 jobs), Massachusetts (10,548 jobs), New York (10,524 jobs) and Texas (10,346 jobs). These are followed by Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and Ohio, each with 7,000 to 9,000 jobs.

California also led for the number of jobs added in 2021 (7,035 new jobs), followed by Massachusetts (+1,053 jobs), Nevada (+1,019 jobs) and Arizona (+932 jobs). Other strong growth states were Ohio, North Carolina, New Jersey and Georgia, each with 800–900 new jobs.

“Solar energy is an economic growth engine, creating new jobs while it helps us confront the climate crisis,” says Dan Reicher, senior scholar at Stanford Woods Institute and a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Energy. “There is vast and untapped potential to expand solar installations and related jobs across the United States, in an environmentally sustainable manner, as we help businesses and families access this renewable energy source.”

The solar industry still has more work to do to meet its goals for diversity, equity and inclusion, and extend the benefits of the clean energy economy to underrepresented groups. The report found that women made up just under 30% of the solar workforce in 2021, while Black employees made up 8% of the workforce, Latino or Hispanic workers made up 20%, and Asian workers made up 9%. Fewer than one-third of solar firms reported strategies to increase female, ethnic or racial minority, or LGBTQ+ hires.

The solar industry can offer a path to advancement and a family-sustaining career, including for those without a two- or four-year college degree. Less than one-third of entry-level solar jobs (31%) require a bachelor’s degree, while 65 percent of firms provide on-the-job training. In a year with a tight labor market, 89% of firms reported difficulty finding qualified applicants, including 35 percent that said it was “very difficult.”

“These 2021 findings highlight that we can create family-sustaining jobs at the same time that we reduce carbon emissions,” adds Tom Starrs, vice president of government and public affairs at EDP Renewables. “They also highlight the critical importance of supportive policies to unlock the full potential of the solar industry to drive employment, foster local energy resilience, and confront climate change.”

This report analyzes data from the U.S. Department of Energy’s U.S. Energy and Employment Report 2022 and a supplemental follow-up survey of solar establishments. Both surveys were administered by BW Research Partnership. The National Solar Jobs Census defines a solar employee as someone who spends 50% or more of their time on solar-related work.

Read the full report here.

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