Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The Internet sector has had its failures (think Webvan and Pets.com), but let's not
forget the myriad other Internet companies that have revolutionized the way we live.
Solar manufacturing will continue to grow in the United States if the market-supporting
policies for the deployment of its products are maintained. Global manufacturing com-
panies,likeGEandKyocera,wanttobuildtheirfactoriestobeclosetodistributionchan-
nels in what many analysts expect will be the largest solar market in a few years, and
this will become increasingly true as the cost of transport becomes a larger portion of
the cost structure of the total solar solution. As the form factor of solar panels and other
photovoltaic products changes, tapping the power of the sun in creative ways will give
our workers a lot to do.
It'simportanttonotehowmanyjobstheRooftopRevolutionportendscomparedwith
those dependent on ol' King CONG. Despite a lack of sustained government support
in the past decade, the overall advanced-energy economy—including wind, energy effi-
ciency (like insulation and weather stripping), and solar—has added more than 770,000
jobs.Bycomparisonthe100-year-oldfossil-fuelsector—includingutilities,coalmining,
and oil and gas extraction (all industries that have received significant government sub-
sidy)—had about 1.27 million workers in 2007, when this analysis was made. The num-
bershaveprobablychangedabitinthepastfiveyearsbuttocleanenergy'sadvantage,as
oil and coal have shed jobs across America and our industry has grown. In other words,
for all the history and the profits of King CONG's companies, they employ fewer than
twice as many people as the clean-energy industry. The shift is under way, and it's going
to be huge!
Remember that the bulk of the solar workforce will be outside the factory gates. As
thesolarindustrygrows,mostofthedirectemploymentistakingplaceincompaniesthat
market,sell,finance,install,andservicesolarinstallations.Andthegrowthwillcontinue
if the positive energy policies needed to support it are maintained by the governments
regulating electricity—especially our right to sell into the grid and the incentives for sol-
ar's deployment.
Holding Our Representatives to Account
One policy that's been a successful stimulator of the solar economy is a cash grants
Treasury program for the tax credits that the solar industry has received. As we've dis-
cussed, most US energy-industry players receive subsidies in the form of tax credits. In
the case of the solar industry, the industry tax credit administered by the Internal Reven-
ue Service has a term that will end in 2016. This credit allows investors to write off 30
percent of the value of the solar systems they pay for. In 2009, as part of the effort to get
