Baker Center : Up to 430,000 solar jobs by 2020

Baker Center answers our question on solar energy : the spread of solar power technology into energy markets is following the same “less-than-smooth” path.

Solar power is on track to become a major source of energy for the United States, and will likely need less federal incentive than other energy sources to get there, according to a study by the University of Tennessee’s Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy.

The 128-page report — Assessment of Incentives and Employment Impacts of Solar Industry Deployment — touts the potential of solar power to reduce energy costs, produce hundreds of thousands of jobs and create a favorable trade balance for the country as American companies export products and materials for international clean energy markets. The study, released Tuesday, was commissioned by the Solar Energy Industry Association.

“This report looks at solar in relation to other energy sources and finds that solar is on the path to becoming a mainstream source of energy for our nation,” Matt Murray, director of the Baker Center, said in a statement.

The study estimates the solar industry will produce 200,000 to 430,000 jobs in the United States by 2020. Installed solar capacity has grown by 77 percent a year over the last five years and the number of installed systems nearly doubled between 2009 and 2010, the study said.

Solar power can be used to establish a favorable trade balance as U.S., solar companies provide manufacturing and materials to serve expanding international clean energy markets, according to the study.

“The sooner solar industries are established in the U.S., the larger the share of these global markets they stand to gain in the decades ahead,” the report says.

The study concludes that the spread of solar power technology into energy markets is following the same “less-than-smooth” path that other technologies have followed…

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