Publications & Reports
Looking for reports, publications and other resources about solar workforce or training? You'll find many here, written and developed by some of today's experts in the solar space.
IREC's 2011 Upates and Trends Annual Report
Released at IREC's Annual Meeting on October 17, 2011 in Dallas, Texas, with chapters authored by many of the nation's top experts in renewable energy on regulatory issues, policies and incentives, installation and market data, clean energy workforce development, credentialing and training.
2011 National Solar Jobs Census
Released at SPI 11 in Dallas, The Solar Foundation's 2011 National Solar Jobs Census examines employment along the solar value chain, including installation, wholesale trade, manufacturing, utilities and all other fields and includes growth rates and job numbers for 31 separate occupations. It also examines solar employment at the state level. The National Solar Jobs Census 2011 was conducted by The Solar Foundation and Green LMI (a division of BW Research Partnership) with technical assistance from Cornell University.
For the fourth year in a row, IREC and chief author, Larry Sherwood, have published this report, a comprehensive look at installation data for PV, solar heating and cooling, and concentrating solar technologies. The data for 2010 are staggering: the capacity of PV systems installed in 2010 doubled from 2009, with more than 124,000 new solar heating, cooling and PV installations concentrated in a few states. Growth in the photovoltaic utility sector was the most dramatic-- the capacity of installed by utilities quadrupled in 2010.
Good Teaching Matters: Five Teaching Practices to Improve the Quality of a Training Course
Originally released as a five-part series for the IREC website, Dr. Barbara Martin's comprehensive work on important teaching practices that can improve the quality of a training course are combined here in one complete report. Whether you're an educator or a student, you'll find Martin's report useful in your work (December 2010).
Greener Skills: How Credentials Create Value in the Clean Energy Economy, Dr. Sarah White and colleagues at the Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS) wrote this brilliant report that makes the case for a national policy of portable, transparent, industry-specific credentials — and state-supported pathways up to them. The report outlines critical, early steps toward a national credentialing system for clean energy workers. It mentions well-known credentialing programs, like ISPQ, NABCEP and LEED.
National Solar Jobs Census 2010: A Review of the U.S. Solar Workforce
This solar job census from The Solar Foundation is an attempt to quantify the current employment and projected growth in the solar industry. The survey examined employment along the solar value chain, including installation, wholesale trade, manufacturing, utilities and all other fields and includes growth rates and job numbers for 31 separate occupations. The report included data from more than 2,400 solar company survey respondents (October 2010).
The Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC), supported by the US Department of Energy (DOE), has created a dynamic Solar Licensing Database as a resource for policy makers, practitioners, consumers, and anyone else looking for solar licensing information in the U.S. The state-by-state information offers a handy comparison for reviewing the different approaches across state lines, and identifies various practices for regulating the solar installation industry.
