Employment

As what may be the first sign of many changes, the President and CEO who led SolarWorld through the Section 201 case is being replaced by a restructuring veteran.

The Empire State state has announced a solicitation for 1.5 million megawatt hours of renewable electricity, to be delivered by 2022.

The national solar trade organization has listed cancelled investments and hiring as well as job losses in its comments supporting requests for exclusion from Section 201 tariffs.

An analysis submitted to Maryland regulators found that distributed solar’s economic benefits – mostly labor associated revenue – was worth six times the value of the electricity to the grid.

The Solar Foundation has launched individual state fact sheets and a map view focused on jobs per U.S. congressional district.

ViZn has laid off all of its employees and ceased operations, as the latest in a series of closures and bankruptcies for makers of alternative battery technologies.

The Chinese PV giant is now planning to employ only 1/4 the number of workers previously planned in one PV module factory, which will be online by the end of next year.

The company’s latest restructuring will involve losing roughly 3% of its global workforce, all in “non-manufacuring” positions.

Solar advocates blame changes to the state’s net metering policy for the decline in installations and a loss of 232 full-time jobs.

The hangover from the ITC-driven 2016 boom is the biggest factor in the relative decline, but a rebound is expected this year.