Florida is second only to California when it comes to the number of solar industry jobs.
That’s according to additional data from the Solar Jobs Census 2018 released on Wednesday. An earlier report with data from the same survey was released in Feburary.
Florida clocked in with 10,358 jobs, compared to 76,838 jobs in California.
The Miami area leads the state with 4,482 solar-related jobs. Jacksonville had 516 jobs. However, the survey was done before JinkoSolar’s new Jacksonville solar manufacturing plant came online in Alliance Florida at the Cecil Commerce Center.
Our Jacksonville Daily Record news partner has reported the new $50.5 million solar panel factory is expected to create more than 200 jobs when it reaches full capacity. A ribbon cutting for the facility was held last month.
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Florida saw a 20.6 percent solar job growth rate between 2017 and 2018.
Based on the amount of solar power generated in Florida in 2018, there’s still plenty of room for additional growth. Just 1.16 percent of Florida’s energy output was from solar, according to the study.
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That compares to 48.1 percent in the District of Columbia, which had the highest percentage of solar energy output. California was a distant second at 18.6 percent.
The Solar Jobs Census was put together by the Solar Foundation. The full report is available here.
Bill Bortzfield can be reached at bbortzfield@wjct.org, 904-358-6349 or on Twitter at @BortzInJax.
