By Mike Sunnucks | Phoenix Business Journal
The upcoming March 14 weekly edition of the Phoenix Business Journal will examine the state of solar energy in Arizona, what issues challenge the industry and how it stacks up to other states and industries. Today, we’ll take a look at what kind of employment driver solar is in California and Arizona — the top two U.S. states for the industry. The answer is that the industry isn’t much of a jobs driver, despite renewable subsidies for consumers and businesses and purchases by public-sector entities such as schools and universities.
Related: The top 10 cities for solar power; Phoenix-Mesa 2nd by megawatts per person
Fast Company
When you run a visualization of solar installations in the U.S. since 2000, two areas stand out. There’s the corridor between San Diego and San Francisco, which flashes continually. Then there’s a big blob in the North-East, from Maryland to upstate New York. States like Arizona come on-board in the mid-2000s, while much of the rest looks barren by comparison.
One Block Off the Grid, which links up homeowners with solar installers, wanted to know the places in the US with the most solar, and it turned to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which keeps a running database called the Open PV Project. To get a a per capita view, NREL divided the number of installs by that place’s population.
Related: ASU, international group team on certification program for solar technicians in West Africa
