Adele Peters:

The solar industry is more labor intensive than other types of energy. Even though it still represents only a tiny fraction of energy production overall—less than 2%—it already has more workers than natural gas, coal, wind, and nuclear. The use of robots and other automation may make solar work more efficient, but jobs will still continue to grow.

By 2021, by some calculations, the U.S. may have 100 gigawatts of installed capacity; right now, we’re close to 39 gigawatts. One national study estimated that the country had the capacity for two terawatts of solar power—or 200,000 gigawatts.

“We haven’t even come close to scratching the surface,” Luecke says. “We still are only 1.3% of the overall electricity mix. I think the rooftops in our land can support a tremendous amount of more solar development.”