As the UK strives towards doing everything that it can to meet its renewable energy targets by 2020 what are the solar panel industry’s job prospects over the next six years?
It appears to be the view of some that any growth in such jobs is likely to come within the sales and installation areas of the industry. This is not a surprise as the manufacturing base within the UK for solar panels is extremely small as a larger percentage of panels are manufactured overseas and imported into the UK. It will be interesting to observe if this changes significantly in the coming years.
The research and development sector relating to solar photovoltaic panels is one that may well grow as the UK strives to build on its involvement in this important area. No doubt the Government will continue with its support in this respect.
It is to be hoped that schemes such as The Urban Community Energy Fund that we recently commented on will play a part in creating further jobs in the industry.
Coming back to the potential opportunity for installation and sales jobs in the solar panel sector, it is perhaps not a surprise that, when you do a search on Google for solar panel jobs in the UK, a larger percentage are in fact for sales advisor, surveyor and installer positions.
As 2014 progresses it will be interesting to see if the number of such positions being advertised increases in the coming months as this will be an indicator that the solar industry is continuing to progress in the right direction. Of course, not wishing to put a dampener on things, once 2020 has passed us by are we going to see a downward spiral in solar panel jobs or are we going to continue to progress onwards and upwards?
Your thoughts would be most welcome.
