What Solar Needs to Take Off

by Kirsten Nelson-Johnson

Bringing solar to the masses presents many challenges, both for producers and consumers. There is currently little communication amongst innovators and workers on the best practices and best means to bring solar to consumers. The solar industry currently lacks the ability to coalesce and support the overall goals of solar installation. Instead of working in disconnected systems, a more holistic approach would lead to a streamlined market in which consumers, innovators, and producers could cut out confusion and increase solar education.

Education is one of the greatest barriers to the large-scale implementation of solar. It has become critical to close the gap and find a methodology for stakeholders to have access to the correct information in order to spur demand and growth.

The question of workforce readiness is an issue that both supporters and critics alike hold up as one of the largest barriers. On one hand, growing clean energy sectors have always been seen as a means of job creation and economic viability. On the other hand most workers in these field are very recently trained and inexperienced. Solar is not an industry where large numbers of workers have 20, 30, or 50 years experience. Solar as an industry is still extremely nascent and ever changing, often leading to a widening rift between customer demand and qualified workers.

Make no mistake, there will be major growing pains in the solar industry as it finds a means of balancing innovation, opens up more communication channels with customers, and finds the best ways to disseminate the installation of solar panels. Old systems must be revisited and new systems must arise to combat the current slower market growth. Each passing day that the solar industry wastes and does not adapt to the market, the less business there will be for the industry as a whole.

We must shift our thinking to incorporate all facets of this growing industry: what the goals are, how innovators and producers can open lines of communication, how to streamline the education and purchase process for consumers, and how we can create the most effective means of training a new generation of solar workers. Training programs need to be created and expanded in order to facilitate the ability of the industry to grow and face challenges with strength.