Solar is for Everyone Talking Points

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The solar industry is focused on ensuring that all communities participate in the solar revolution. Solar is for everyone.
  • Today, the U.S. solar industry employs 174,000 Americans – more than Google, Apple, Facebook and Twitter combined – and double what coal mining currently employs.
  • The solar industry is well on its way to becoming the most diverse energy sector – with more than 30 percent of the solar workforce currently comprised of minorities and 10 percent veterans of the U.S. Armed Services.
  • In addition, the solar industry is committed to employing 50,000 veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces by 2020.
  • 9 out of 10 Americans support solar, according to recent polls by Gallup, Hart Research and Morning Consult.
  • The benefits, including both environmental and economic, that solar provides accrue to entire communities, not just the residents/businesses putting panels on their roofs.
  • The fact is, when customers go solar, utilities spend less. When utilities spend less, customers save.
  • Solar allows utilities to avoid the considerable short-term costs of purchasing expensive peak power from other sources. Customer-sited solar generation also enables utilities to spend less money as they will need to build less transmission and distribution infrastructure in the future.
  • As solar prices have plummeted by more than 50 percent over the last decade, communities across the income spectrum are taking advantage of solar’s increased affordability.
  • Solar energy substantially reduces the energy burden of low-income households by providing stable electricity prices below local utility rates.
  • SEIA is one of 68 partners pledging to continue to increase solar access nationwide. $545 million is being invested across 21 states to advance community solar and scale-up access for low- and moderate- income households.
  • The industry has made a strong commitment to community solar projects where all communities have an opportunity to house solar projects that can bring clean, renewable and affordable solar energy through distributed generation to all Americans.
  • Utility-scale solar arrays tend to be sited in communities where property values are low, bringing much needed tax revenue to communities that frequently have limited economic activity.
  • The air quality benefits that come with reduced pollutants such as mercury, NOx and Sox, not to mention carbon pollution, are particularly prevalent in underserved communities that tend to be the homes of dirty fossil power plants.
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Talking Points