Germany’s Solar PV Industry Now Employs More than US Steel Industry (Over 100,000)

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Solar photovoltaic panels on home in Germany, one of many now featuring solar PV panels.

There’s a nice little statistic for you.

Germany Trade & Invest (GT&I) recently reported that its latest figures show Germany’s solar photovoltaic (PV) industry employs over 100,000 ‘green’ workers now, more than the US steel industry.

Update: A thoughtful reader pointed out to me that “the US has about 312 million people while Germany has 82 million, about 25% as many people…. That makes the German solar industry more than four times as large an employer than US steel based on country size.”

Here’s a little more from PV-Tech:

The main requirement for ‘Made in Germany’ components is driven by the country’s domestic solar market, which installed a total of 7.4GWp in 2010. Yet Germany is also a manufacturing platform for other European PV markets, including Italy, where the feed-in tariff adjustments stipulate that installed technology must be ‘Made in Europe’. At present, approximately 75% of European solar cells, modules and other BOS are currently made in Germany.

More Germany stories on CleanTechnica:

  1. Germany: Talk of the Cleantech Town this Week
  2. Google Invests $5M in German Solar Power Plant
  3. Germany: Nuclear Power 100% Shut Down by 2022
  4. Renewable Energy in Germany Going to Get a Boost from Wind Energy Superhighway
  5. 1.8 GW of Midsize German Solar Installations Due to Feed-in Tariffs

Photo via toxicjames

Zachary Shahan (2298 Posts)

I'm the director of CleanTechnica, the most popular clean energy website in the world, and Planetsave, a leading green and science news site. I've been covering green news of various sorts since 2008, and I've been especially focused on solar energy, electric vehicles, bicycling, and wind energy for the past few years. You can also find my work on Scientific American, Reuters, Think Progress, GE's ecomagination site, several sites in the Important Media network, & many other places. To connect on some of your favorite social networks, go to zacharyshahan.com or click on some of the links below.