EU Solar Jobs Report 2026

The EU Solar Jobs Report 2026 analyses employment across the EU solar value chain, including manufacturing, deployment, operations and maintenance, and decommissioning and recycling. The report finds that the EU solar sector supported 874,000 full-time equivalent jobs in 2025, with employment still heavily concentrated in deployment activities. It also examines the changing structure of Europe’s solar workforce, including the growing role of utility-scale solar, the continued concentration of jobs in leading markets such as Germany, Spain and Italy, and the expected evolution of solar employment by 2030.

For the first time, this edition also includes a dedicated assessment of battery energy storage employment. The report finds that battery storage supported 108,000 full-time equivalent jobs in the EU in 2025, bringing combined solar and storage employment to around one million jobs. As solar, storage, grids and digital technologies become more closely integrated, the report highlights the growing need for workforce planning across the wider electrification ecosystem.

The report also sets out policy recommendations to address the labour and skills challenges facing the sector. These include maintaining training and recruitment capacity, improving access to skills funding for renewable energy SMEs, modernising vocational education and training, implementing RED III installer-gap provisions, and building clearer pathways into solar careers through apprenticeships, reskilling and regional transition programmes.