The Alliance’s seven member and supporter companies are leading in the 34,000-worker strong solar manufacturing industry, with plans to add thousands more good paying, long term jobs to the U.S. economy in the coming years.
In February 2024, Bill Gates-backed CubicPV Inc., an innovative solar manufacturing upstart, canceled its plan to construct a 10 GW wafer factory just 14 months after the plans were announced. The company attributed the decision to disintegrating market conditions.
Right now, Chinese-owned companies’ dominance over the market is huge – 99% of wafers, 80% of cells, and 90% of polysilicon are made by China-connected companies. According to a study by Dartmouth University, Princeton University, and the Blue Green Alliance, if all U.S. developers sourced 55% of their manufactured solar goods domestically, this industry would support 900,000 jobs by 2035. That is a significant increase from the estimated 34,000 solar manufacturing jobs in the U.S. today.
The companies represented contribute significantly to job creation and investment in the U.S. economy, with manufacturing facilities bringing billions in local investment and more than 27,800 indirect jobs.
The solar industry offers a range of careers for individuals, from engineers with PhDs to manufacturing roles with no requirement for a college degree. The industry is actively seeking to attract more diverse candidates and has already seen success with young people aged 18-29 comprising 31% of the solar workforce.
In December 2021, Congress passed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act with strong bipartisan support to prevent imports of goods made with forced labor. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials have stopped $3.17 billion worth of imports since the law went into effect. In 2022 alone, U.S. CBP stopped 2 GW of Chinese-made solar panels totaling nearly $710 million.
Current total capacity (MW of panels and/or cells): 12,500 MW
Current total jobs: 33,993 jobs (6,120 direct jobs and 27,873 indirect jobs)
Planned investments (MW of panels and/or cells): 40,600 MW
Planned jobs: 80,580 jobs (14,650 direct planned jobs and 65,930 indirect planned jobs)
