---
title: "Solar Thermal Installer and Technician"
description: "Install or repair solar energy systems designed to collect, store, and circulate solar-heated water for residential, commercial or industrial use."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/solar-thermal-installer-and-technician"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Solar Thermal Installer and Technician

**Category:** Construction and Extraction · **SOC code:** 47-2152 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 47-2152.04

Install or repair solar energy systems designed to collect, store, and circulate solar-heated water for residential, commercial or industrial use.

Also advertised as: Installer; Solar Energy Technician; Solar Hot Water Installer (SHW Installer); Solar Installer; Solar Maintenance Technician; Solar System Installer; Solar Technician; Solar Thermal Installer.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $63,800 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $30.67/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $44,150 to $108,420, with the middle half between $50,190 and $85,110
- **Total US employment:** 465,840
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +4.5% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 44,000 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 61/100 — 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 465,840 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $44,150 |
| 25th | $50,190 |
| 50th (median) | $63,800 |
| 75th | $85,110 |
| 90th | $108,420 |
| Mean (average) | $72,170 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| DC | $101,020 | $91,919 | 1,010 |
| IL | $99,950 | $99,992 | 16,750 |
| OR | $97,050 | $93,894 | 5,370 |
| MN | $94,410 | $95,730 | 10,720 |
| AK | $93,920 | $91,755 | 1,200 |
| MA | $93,880 | $88,770 | 13,460 |
| WI | $81,210 | $86,306 | 10,210 |
| WA | $81,030 | $75,720 | 12,470 |
| MI | $80,190 | $83,343 | 14,120 |
| MT | $79,960 | $84,484 | 1,860 |
| NJ | $78,240 | $71,908 | 8,750 |
| HI | $78,060 | $70,995 | 2,500 |
| NY | $77,490 | $71,803 | 23,210 |
| CT | $77,280 | $74,587 | 5,410 |
| RI | $76,470 | $74,765 | 1,820 |

39 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 54 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/solar-thermal-installer-and-technician/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/solar-thermal-installer-and-technician.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 504,500 in the 2024–2034 base year to 527,200 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 22,700 jobs, or +4.5%. Faster than average: 4.5% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 44,000 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Apprenticeship.

### 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 |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma | 43.2% |
| Some College Courses | 24.9% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 11.2% |
| Post-Baccalaureate Certificate | 11.2% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 7.5% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 1.9% |

## What the work involves

- Determine locations for installing solar subsystem components, including piping, water heaters, valves, and ancillary equipment.
- Test operation or functionality of mechanical, plumbing, electrical, and control systems.
- Demonstrate start-up, shut-down, maintenance, diagnostic, and safety procedures to thermal system owners.
- Identify plumbing, electrical, environmental, or safety hazards associated with solar thermal installations.
- Assess collector sites to ensure structural integrity of potential mounting surfaces or the best orientation and tilt for solar collectors.
- Install flat-plat, evacuated glass, or concentrating solar collectors on mounting devices, using brackets or struts.
- Apply weather seal, such as pipe flashings and sealants, to roof penetrations and structural devices.
- Fill water tanks and check tanks, pipes, and fittings for leaks.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.5 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 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — 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
- Time Management — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Mechanical — importance 4.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Building and Construction — importance 4.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Engineering and Technology — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.4 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 | 3.66 |
| I — Investigative | 2.69 |
| S — Social | 1.70 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.60 |
| A — Artistic | 1.13 |

### 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 | 83.5 |
| ISTP | 81.3 |
| ISFJ | 68.3 |
| ESTJ | 67.6 |
| ESTP | 64.5 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ, ISTP.

## Related occupations

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

- [Solar Photovoltaic Installer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/solar-photovoltaic-installer) — median $53,140
- [Solar Energy Systems Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/solar-energy-systems-engineer) — median $122,930
- [Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanic and Installer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/heating-air-conditioning-and-refrigeration-mechanic-and-installer) — median $61,010
- [Insulation Worker, Floor, Ceiling, and Wall](https://nuecareer.com/careers/insulation-worker-floor-ceiling-and-wall) — median $49,120
- [Solar Energy Installation Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/solar-energy-installation-manager) — median $79,920
- [Insulation Worker, Mechanical](https://nuecareer.com/careers/insulation-worker-mechanical) — median $58,340
- [Plumber](https://nuecareer.com/careers/plumber) — median $63,800
- [Geothermal Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/geothermal-technician) — median $49,230
- [Wind Turbine Service Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/wind-turbine-service-technician) — median $64,120
- [Control and Valve Installer and Repairer, Except Mechanical Door](https://nuecareer.com/careers/control-and-valve-installer-and-repairer) — median $74,340

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 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, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 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 30.3 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-thermal-installer-and-technician