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Europe’s solar and battery storage industries together accounted for 982,000 jobs in 2025, as detailed in the EU Solar Jobs Report 2026 published by SolarPower Europe. Released on 7 October 2026, the study covers employment in both sectors and represents the first occasion that battery storage has been included alongside solar in this assessment.
Within the EU, solar alone was responsible for 874,000 positions in 2025, while battery storage provided an additional 108,000 roles. Combined, the two industries constitute a workforce approaching one million, highlighting the employment scale underpinning Europe’s shift to renewable energy.
In 2025, solar employment rose by 1%, double the 0.5% growth recorded for overall EU employment. This expansion occurred despite difficult market conditions and surpassed earlier projections, following EU solar installations reaching 69 GW in 2025, which beat previous market expectations.
The report’s broader scope now features a specific evaluation of battery storage employment, identifying 108,000 jobs spanning manufacturing, deployment, operations and maintenance, and end-of-life activities. Over the past four years, the EU’s battery storage capacity expanded twelve-fold to roughly 80 GWh, mirroring the swift growth of Europe’s battery sector. With batteries playing an ever-greater role in flexibility, resilience, and renewable energy integration, storage is becoming a significant source of renewable-energy employment alongside solar.
Deployment activities represented about 85% of all solar jobs in 2025, continuing as the core of Europe’s solar workforce. Operations and maintenance employment grew as the installed solar fleet expanded, whereas manufacturing endured another difficult year marked by factory closures, global overcapacity, and fierce international competition.
For the first time since the report series started, utility-scale solar employment marginally overtook rooftop solar employment, making up 50.2% of all solar jobs in 2025. This change signals the increasing importance of large-scale solar projects in Europe’s energy transition.
Germany stayed the EU’s top solar employer in 2025 with roughly 165,000 jobs, just ahead of Spain, which supported a comparable total overall. Italy came third with about 85,000 jobs. Combined, these three nations represented nearly half of Europe’s solar workforce. France, Romania and Poland also featured among the EU’s largest solar employment markets.
Although solar employment is still growing, the decelerating rate serves as a caution. Under the present market trajectory, solar employment is expected to fall by 2030 as deployment growth flattens, productivity improvements lower labour demand, and difficult investment conditions burden new projects. The report pinpoints rising curtailment, growing negative electricity prices, and inadequate deployment of flexibility solutions as escalating challenges for deployment, with direct consequences for Europe’s solar workforce.
Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of SolarPower Europe, remarked that approximately one million people now work in Europe’s solar and storage sectors, spanning rooftops, construction sites, engineering teams, control rooms, and the supply chain. She called this something to celebrate but not to take for granted, cautioning that if deployment slows and flexibility challenges stay unresolved, Europe risks undermining a key source of energy security and resilience as well as solar’s potential for job creation.
Christophe Lits, report author and Senior Market Analyst at SolarPower Europe, observed that this year’s report represents a milestone by evaluating solar and battery storage employment together for the first time. He suggested that as solar and storage become increasingly integrated technologies, more workers are anticipated to design, install and operate them side by side, reflecting the growing role of flexibility in Europe’s energy system. He added that this will not occur on its own, emphasizing that people need routes into these jobs, accessible training, and projects to work on, and that policymakers must convert Europe’s skills and electrification ambitions into action.
To tackle the risks, SolarPower Europe urges policymakers to put solar skills at the centre of Europe’s competitiveness and industrial agenda. The priority now is implementation: transforming the Union of Skills, Renewable Energy Directive III and the Electrification Action Plan into practical support for workers, training providers and employers. Europe must also speed up electrification and flexibility deployment, while broadening training, apprenticeships and reskilling pathways to secure the workforce required for the renewable energy transition.
Interactive table based on the Store Companies dataset for this report.
Report Scope and Analytical Framing
Concise View of Market Direction
Market Size, Growth and Scenario Framing
Commercial and Technical Scope
How the Market Splits Into Decision-Relevant Buckets
Where Demand Comes From and How It Behaves
Supply Footprint, Trade and Value Capture
Trade Flows and External Dependence
Price Formation and Revenue Logic
Who Wins and Why
Where Growth and Supply Concentrate
Commercial Entry and Scaling Priorities
Where the Best Expansion Logic Sits
Leading Players and Strategic Archetypes
Detailed View of the Most Important National Markets
How the Report Was Built
Largest solar cell & module producer globally.
World's largest monocrystalline wafer & module maker.
Major integrated solar manufacturer.
Leading producer of high-performance PV products.
Global manufacturer with production in Americas & Asia.
Major cell/module maker with US & Asian production.
Top-tier PV module and cell manufacturer.
Largest thin-film solar manufacturer globally.
Major LED chip & packaging for displays/lighting.
Pioneer and leading supplier of LED phosphors & chips.
Historically leading innovator in LED chips.
Major European LED & opto-semiconductor producer.
Producer of high-efficiency IBC solar cells.
World's largest producer of solar cell wafers.
Leading ABC cell (N-type) technology producer.
Rapidly growing solar cell and module manufacturer.
Integrated PV manufacturer under Chint Group.
Major global LED packaging and component supplier.
Leading supplier of LED components for automotive/lighting.
One of world's largest LED epitaxial wafer & chip makers.
Innovator in LED packaging (WICOP) and chip technology.
Major LED component supplier, part of LG Group.
Key LED epitaxy and chip manufacturer.
Historically significant in both PV and LED production.
Major PV manufacturer part of GCL Group.
Specialist in N-type TOPCon solar cells and modules.
Historic PV leader, continues manufacturing.
Leading LED chip manufacturer, part of Ennostar.
Major LED packaging company for lighting & display.
Leading Chinese LED packaging and component supplier.
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