Shining a Light on Solar Workforce Development

Alyssa Thomas oversees the workforce development program at SunPower, a residential solar company, that services all 50 states in the US and has been around since the mid-1980s. The transition to clean energy is expected to generate 10 million net new jobs globally by the year 2030. Most of the anticipated job gains will likely be in the power generation, automotive, and electrical efficiency sectors. How we develop the talent to meet the job demands falls under the category of workforce development, which we've talked about before on the show. Today, we'll dive deep into what it means for the solar industry. In this episode, Yin and Alyssa discuss what workforce development encompasses for a private-sector solar company, and why more private companies are focusing on it now as a part of their business model. We also talk about the three key levers that the US should focus on to address labor shortages in the clean energy sector, bringing back career technical education curriculum into every American high school, building a stronger social services net to provide support for people transitioning into the trades, and investing more into building and maintaining apprenticeship programs.