Solar and storage power one million jobs in the EU

• The EU solar sector supported 874,000 jobs in 2025

• Solar employment grew twice as fast as overall EU employment in 2025 (1% versus 0.5%)

• Battery storage supported 108,000 jobs in 2025, bringing combined solar and storage employment close to one million jobs

• Deployment activities account for around 85% of solar employment

• Utility-scale solar jobs marginally surpassed rooftop jobs for the first time, reaching 50.2% of solar employment in 2025

BRUSSELS, Belgium (7 October 2026) – Europe’s solar and battery storage sectors supported 982,000 jobs in 2025, according to SolarPower Europe’s new EU Solar Jobs Report 2026. The EU solar sector supported 874,000 jobs, while battery storage supported a further 108,000 jobs. Together, the two sectors now form an around one-million-job workforce, underlining the scale of employment behind Europe’s renewable energy transition.

Despite a challenging market environment, solar employment continued to grow in 2025. While overall employment across the EU increased by 0.5%, solar employment grew by 1%, twice the rate of the wider economy. Solar employment exceeded previous forecasts after EU solar installations reached 69 GW in 2025, outperforming earlier market expectations.

For the first time, the EU Solar Jobs Report 2026 also expands its scope to include a dedicated assessment of battery storage employment. The report finds that battery storage already supports 108,000 jobs across manufacturing, deployment, operations and maintenance, and end-of-life activities. The finding reflects the rapid expansion of Europe's battery market, with the EU battery storage fleet growing twelve-fold in the last four years to around 80 GWh. As batteries become increasingly important for flexibility, resilience, and renewable energy integration, storage is emerging as a major source of renewable-energy employment alongside solar.

Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of SolarPower Europe, said: “This report shows how much is now at stake. Around one million people now work in Europe’s solar and storage sectors: on rooftops, on construction sites, in engineering teams, in control rooms, and across the supply chain. This is something to celebrate, but that we must not take for granted. If deployment slows and flexibility challenges remain unresolved, Europe risks not only weakening a key source of energy security and resilience, but also solar’s significant potential for job creation.”

Deployment remained the backbone of Europe's solar workforce, accounting for around 85% of all solar jobs in 2025. Employment in operations and maintenance increased as Europe's installed solar fleet expanded, while manufacturing faced another challenging year amid factory closures, global overcapacity, and intense international competition. 

The report also highlights several notable developments across Europe's solar workforce. For the first time since the EU Solar Jobs Report series began, utility-scale solar employment slightly exceeded rooftop solar employment, accounting for just over half of all solar jobs in 2025. This shift points to the growing role of large-scale solar projects in Europe's energy transition.
 

Germany remained the EU's largest solar employer in 2025 with around 165,000 jobs, narrowly ahead of Spain, which supported a similar number of jobs overall. Italy ranked third with approximately 85,000 jobs. Together, the three countries accounted for almost half of Europe's solar workforce. France, Romania and Poland also ranked among the EU's largest solar employment markets.

Christophe Lits, Report Author and Senior Market Analyst at SolarPower Europe, said: "This year's report marks an important milestone by assessing solar and battery storage employment together for the first time. As solar and storage become increasingly integrated technologies, we expect to see more workers designing, installing and operating them side by side, reflecting the growing role of flexibility in Europe's energy system. But that won’t happen on its own. People need routes into these jobs, training they can access, and projects to work on. Policymakers must now turn Europe’s skills and electrification ambitions into action."
 

While solar employment continues to grow today, the slowing pace is a warning sign. Under the current market trajectory, solar employment is projected to decline by 2030 as deployment growth stalls, productivity gains reduce labour demand, and challenging investment conditions weigh on new projects. The report identifies rising curtailment, increasing negative electricity prices, and insufficient deployment of flexibility solutions as growing challenges for deployment, with direct implications for Europe’s solar workforce.
 

To address these risks, SolarPower Europe calls on policymakers to place solar skills at the heart of Europe's competitiveness and industrial agenda. The priority now is implementation: turning the Union of Skills, Renewable Energy Directive III and the Electrification Action Plan into practical support for workers, training providers and employers. Europe must also accelerate electrification and flexibility deployment, while expanding training, apprenticeships and reskilling pathways to secure the workforce needed for the renewable energy transition.