In Trump's First Year, the U.S. Lost Almost 10,000 Solar Jobs

Since the end of the Great Recession, two things have been true of the American solar industry: It was growing like gangbusters, and basically everyone liked it.

From 2010 to 2016, the number of solar jobs in the United States nearly tripled, roaring from about 93,000 to more than 260,000. In 2016 alone, the solar industry grew 17 times faster than the U.S. economy. By the end of that year, there weren’t only more solar workers than coal miners; there were more people working in the solar industry than were employed by every oil, gas, and coal-burning power plant put together.

What’s more, Americans of all stripes thought the technology was pretty good. In 2016, almost 90 percent of Americans that they supported building solar, more than endorsed any other energy source..