New report: EU solar workforce reaches record heights in 2024, but growth expected to stall in 2025

• At the end of 2024, the EU solar sector employed a record number of 865,000 jobs, representing a 5% growth since 2023.

• However, SolarPower Europe's annual EU Solar Jobs report cautions that for the first time in nearly a decade, solar jobs are decreasing, with the solar workforce anticipated to drop by 5%, to around 825,000 jobs in 2025.

• The EU solar workforce decline reflects a slower EU solar market growth, projected to fall by 1.5% in 2025. This is related to a weakening residential rooftop segment, and a manufacturing sector at risk amid global competitiveness challenges.

• Due to this downturn, achieving one million solar jobs by 2027, as projected in last year’s report, now appears out of reach. 

• The sector is expected to return to a stable but lower growth level in 2026, with employment projected to rise to 916,000 jobs by 2029. Accordingly, the report outlines several policy recommendations to guide Europe’s solar industry.

• At national level, Germany remains the largest solar employer in the EU with 128,000 solar jobs. Spain and Italy overtake Poland to take second and third positions, with France, Romania, and Hungary completing the top 7 EU solar workforces ranking.

BRUSSELS, Belgium (Thursday 2nd October 2025): Europe’s green job expansion continues with EU solar jobs rising to a record high of 865,000 in 2024. The sector’s 5% increase outperforms the wider EU labour market’s 0.8% growth.* Most jobs, 86%, are provided by the solar deployment sector.

Nevertheless, EU solar employment growth will face a temporary slowdown in 2025, with a 5% decline to 825,000 jobs due to slower solar deployment and manufacturing challenges. The EU solar workforce is expected to grow over the coming years and reach 916,000 jobs by 2029.

Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of SolarPower Europe (she/her) said: “In 2025, solar delivers 825,000 quality jobs for Europe. That is incredible. However, this falls short of the 1 million solar job mark we were hoping to reach by now, and for the first time in a decade, solar jobs growth has halted. We can’t ignore this warning. EU leaders have the opportunity to reverse course, stabilise the market, support EU solar manufacturers, and strengthen its skills strategy.”

The disruption to solar workforce growth in 2025 is caused by a slowdown in residential solar, with energy crisis impacts easing and inadequate levels of system flexibility remaining. The EU rooftop solar workforce has been shrinking for the last 3 years, from 73% in 2022, to 59% in 2024, and is projected to fall to 56% in 2029.

Accordingly, the annual EU Solar Jobs Report has revised last year’s projection that the EU would reach 1 million solar jobs by 2027, with this now only likely achievable from 2030 onwards.

At national level, there has been movement. Despite a 17% decrease in Germany’s solar workforce from 2023 to 2024, the country holds the title of the EU’s largest solar employer with 128,000 jobs. Poland, previously the country with the second largest solar workforce, fell to fourth place with around 90,000 as its job-intensive residential rooftop market decreased. Spain ranks second with 122,000 solar workers, with the country prioritising its less job-intensive utility-scale sector which delivers more GW capacity with fewer workers. Italy, currently in third place, is expected to overtake Spain by 2029, supported by a steady market growth and a greater focus on utility-scale solar projects.

To keep the solar workforce on track to drive Europe’s decarbonisation goals, the EU Solar Jobs Report proposes a set of policy recommendations:

1. Establish a European Solar Skills Intelligence Hub.
2. Scale and stabilise funding for renewable skills, with simplified access for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
3. Map existing skills initiatives.
4. Conclude sectoral agreements to enable large-scale retraining.
5. Run coordinated campaigns to improve the attractiveness of technical green careers as well as apprenticeships and vocational trainings.
6. Promote gender balance and diversity in solar careers. 
7. Develop cross-renewable career pathways and portable competence frameworks.
8. Introduce a European Solar Skills Passport.
9. Adopt an electrification-skills strategy that links solar PV to heat, mobility and storage.
10. Invest in advanced digital and artificial intelligence (AI) trainings.

Notes

*Source: Eurostat

What is Flexibility?  

Energy system flexibility is the ability of an energy system to adapt to changing conditions, such as variations in demand and supply. The key means are smart and interconnected grids, storage and demand response. 

Consumers, electricity generators, or technology like storage, can use flexibility to adjust how they feed in electricity to the grid or consume electricity from the grid. This is important to match grid needs or solar availability. 

In real life that looks like a solar power plant coupled with battery storage, or a smart charging station that charges a car when rooftop solar PV is producing abundantly.

Flexibility means the energy system is being used more efficiently, and so less investment is needed for slow-to-build grid infrastructure. 

Discover the #LetsFlex campaign 

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