Colorado 6th for solar-energy jobs

Colorado's solar industry has 3,600 direct jobs, ranking the state sixth in the nation, according to a nationwide survey on the industry's employment creation. The survey from the nonprofit Solar Foundation says most Colorado solar jobs are in installation and manufacturing. It says Colorado has 266 solar companies, and that the per-capita ratio of solar workers to total employment is one to 755, seventh highest in the nation. The Washington, D.C.-based Solar Foundation says Colorado ranks fifth in the nation for the number of homes powered by solar, at 43,048, and eighth for its "maximum solar resource." Nationwide, the report finds a national solar employment base at the end of 2012 of more than 119,000 jobs, an increase of 13.2 percent from 2011. California ranked first with the number of solar jobs and solar jobs per capita, followed by Arizona. The Solar Foundation has compiled the information into a solar map that will be used to track solar jobs in the coming years. "These jobs figures demonstrate that the U.S. solar industry remains a powerful source of job creation," said Andrea Luecke, Solar Foundation director. "In comparing our estimates with data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we find that California now has more solar workers than actors and that there are more solar jobs in Texas than there are ranchers. Economies of scale are also making our industry more labor efficient, requiring only one-third the number of workers to install a megawatt of solar today as it did in 2010." Rounding out the top 10 are New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Colorado, New York, Texas, Michigan and Ohio.