---
title: "Solar Photovoltaic Installer"
description: "Assemble, install, or maintain solar photovoltaic (PV) systems on roofs or other structures in compliance with site assessment and schematics. May…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/solar-photovoltaic-installer"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Solar Photovoltaic Installer

**Category:** Construction and Extraction · **SOC code:** 47-2231 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 47-2231.00

Assemble, install, or maintain solar photovoltaic (PV) systems on roofs or other structures in compliance with site assessment and schematics. May include measuring, cutting, assembling, and bolting structural framing and solar modules. May perform minor electrical work such as current checks.

Also advertised as: Journeyman Electrician PV Installer (Journeyman Electrician Photovoltaic Installer); PV Installation Tech (Photovoltaic Installation Technician); PV Installer (Photovoltaic Installer); Solar Designer; Solar Electric Installer; Solar Installer; Solar Panel Installation Technician (Solar Panel Installation Tech); Solar PV Installer (Solar Photovoltaic Installer).

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $53,140 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $25.55/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $41,600 to $79,970, with the middle half between $46,700 and $62,870
- **Total US employment:** 31,350
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +36.5% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 4,200 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 63/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 31,350 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $41,600 |
| 25th | $46,700 |
| 50th (median) | $53,140 |
| 75th | $62,870 |
| 90th | $79,970 |
| Mean (average) | $57,900 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NJ | $78,950 | $72,561 | 1,880 |
| HI | $70,370 | $64,001 | 420 |
| NV | $67,810 | $67,824 | 100 |
| OR | $66,320 | $64,163 | 360 |
| OH | $62,400 | $67,260 | 70 |
| WA | $61,630 | $57,591 | Not published by BLS |
| ME | $61,210 | $63,071 | 60 |
| CA | $60,600 | $54,733 | 6,830 |
| IL | $59,630 | $59,655 | Not published by BLS |
| MA | $59,180 | $55,958 | 620 |
| IA | $56,740 | $64,652 | 180 |
| NY | $56,160 | $52,038 | 1,230 |
| CT | $55,590 | $53,653 | Not published by BLS |
| AZ | $51,160 | $50,816 | 1,280 |
| FL | $50,550 | $48,881 | 2,980 |

18 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 33 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/solar-photovoltaic-installer/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/solar-photovoltaic-installer.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 31,100 in the 2025–2035 base year to 42,400 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 11,300 jobs, or +36.5%. Much faster than average: 36.5% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 4,200 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 36.9% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 33.7% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 13.9% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 11.0% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 3.4% |
| Master's Degree | 1.1% |

## What the work involves

- Install photovoltaic (PV) systems in accordance with codes and standards, using drawings, schematics, and instructions.
- Identify electrical, environmental, and safety hazards associated with photovoltaic (PV) installations.
- Identify and resolve any deficiencies in photovoltaic (PV) system installation or materials.
- Identify methods for laying out, orienting, and mounting modules or arrays to ensure efficient installation, electrical configuration, or system maintenance.
- Assemble solar modules, panels, or support structures, as specified.
- Install module array interconnect wiring, implementing measures to disable arrays during installation.
- Apply weather sealing to array, building, or support mechanisms.
- Determine materials, equipment, and installation sequences necessary to maximize installation efficiency.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Critical Thinking — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Installation — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Building and Construction — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Engineering and Technology — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mechanical — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Design — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Visualization — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Information Ordering — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 7.00 |
| C — Conventional | 4.08 |
| I — Investigative | 2.65 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.73 |
| A — Artistic | 1.39 |
| S — Social | 1.19 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 89.3 |
| ISTP | 78.6 |
| ESTJ | 72.5 |
| ISFJ | 71.9 |
| INTJ | 67.8 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Solar Thermal Installer and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/solar-thermal-installer-and-technician) — median $63,800
- [Solar Energy Installation Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/solar-energy-installation-manager) — median $79,920
- [Wind Turbine Service Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/wind-turbine-service-technician) — median $64,120
- [Hydroelectric Plant Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/hydroelectric-plant-technician) — median $102,040
- [Lighting Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/lighting-technician) — median $68,060
- [Electrician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrician) — median $63,190
- [Geothermal Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/geothermal-technician) — median $49,230
- [Electrical and Electronics Installer and Repairer, Transportation Equipment](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-and-electronics-installer-and-repairer-transportation-equipment) — median $84,890
- [Electrical and Electronics Repairer, Commercial and Industrial Equipment](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-and-electronics-repairer-commercial-and-industrial-equipment) — median $74,090
- [Maintenance and Repair Worker, General](https://nuecareer.com/careers/maintenance-and-repair-worker-general) — median $49,590

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/solar-photovoltaic-installer