EU Solar Industry to Lose 108,000 Jobs by 2030 as Deployment Growth Levels Off

The EU solar sector is heading for a net workforce reduction of 108,000 jobs by 2030, even as total installed capacity continues to climb, according to a SolarPower Europe report. The driver is a structural shift: the industry has moved from a phase of rapid year-on-year expansion into a mature market where annual build volumes are roughly constant.

Under the report’s medium scenario, total solar employment across the bloc falls from 874,000 workers in 2025 to 766,000 by 2030. The sharpest decline comes in installation and deployment, which contracts 22% — from 742,000 to 578,000 jobs. With each annual cohort of projects similar in scale to the last, and installation teams more productive per megawatt than before, the segment simply requires fewer hands.

Other parts of the value chain move in the opposite direction. Operations and maintenance employment is forecast to rise from 78,000 to 109,000 workers as the EU’s cumulative solar base expands toward 739 GW, generating growing demand for upkeep. Manufacturing — where inverter production currently accounts for around 90% of factory jobs — could add workers too, climbing from 37,000 to 49,000, though that growth depends on announced industrial projects being carried through.

The overall picture is one of uneven redistribution: gains in O&M and manufacturing offset part of the installation losses, but not enough to prevent a decline in the sector’s total headcount over the five-year period.

Source: PV-Tech