ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Top Solar Energy Companies In America

Updated on August 5, 2015

Alternative Energies and Natural Resources

As alternative energies and their related products increase in use throughout America, new jobs and new business ventures will continue to emerge in response to increased consumer demand.

This phenomenon is expected to continue for decades in America. Solar power is one of the types of alternative energies used in aerospace technologies and in some applications on Earth. The solar sail has been developed far enough for use in the mid-2010s in space to help power and transport oprations and products of asteroid mining..

In the years between 2010 - 2050, aerospace mining as well as space tourism is projected to provide additional natural resources to be used for energy alternatives and other products on Earth. The new resources extraction will begin with moon mining after 2012 and progress to Mars and the Mars-Jupiter between-planets asteroid belt. All of this activity will provide long-term employment in new jobs.

Hot Job Listings, Major Locations, and a Top 10 Manufacturers List are all offered below.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft, launched on Sept. 27, 2007 to study the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter in hopes of mining.
NASA's Dawn spacecraft, launched on Sept. 27, 2007 to study the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter in hopes of mining. | Source

Classics About Moon Mining

Ironic Update: Moon Landers

On August 10, 2012 we learned that moon landers designed and built under Google's LunarX Prize competition are much better than one that NASA had just released.

The space agency's Morpheus moon lander erupted into a flaming explosion after lifting off only 10 feet. It was wise for NASA to join with over 63 private space firms for its space-going hopes in the future.

The Google-backed moon landers developed by independent firms and researchers are set to lift off and land on Luna years early, in 2013.

NASA's DAWN Headed for Asteroid Belt

March 10, 2009 -- NASA's Dawn spacecraft launched its way to two of the largest bodies in the Mars-Jupiter Asteroid Belt: Vesta (in 2011) and Ceres (in 2015). DAWN was launched in autumn of 2007, so we see how long-term jobs connected with the new natural resource fields in space will be.

A few novels have speculated about space mining and their stories look to be fulfilled. Homer Hickam who was one of the teens in his true story Rocket Boys and later worked at NASA, wrote Back to the Moon. It is a speculative novel that is very believable in the nature of its moon resources extraction and intrigue connected to it. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress is a Libertarian speculative story of society on the moon during mining industry success, written by Robert Heinlein.

Aerospace Business Is Here

  • Jupiter's Moon Europa is Target for Possible NASA Lander | Jupiter & Moons | Europa & Search -- NASA is studying a mission concept for the mid-2010s to drop two landers on the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa. The goal would be to assess the icy moon's potential to host life.

A field of solar panels.
A field of solar panels. | Source

Top Alternative Energy Jobs Openings through 2020

  1. Outside Sales Consultants - residential buildings.
  2. Fuel Transport Drivers
  3. Regional Technology Sales Managers
  4. Electrical Engineers
  5. Field Engineers
  6. Mechanical Engineers
  7. Outside Sales Representatives
  8. Control Designers
  9. Technicians
  10. Network Engineers
  11. Quality Engineers
  12. Sustainability Managers

Largest Three Cities for Solar Products and Related Jobs in USA

A
San Deigo CA:
San Diego, CA, USA

get directions

B
San Francisco CA:
San Francisco, CA, USA

get directions

C
San Jose CA:
San Jose, CA, USA

get directions

Major Metro Areas of Leading Solar/Wind Companies

Solar and wind energy jobs and products are concentrated most thickly in the following metro areas: San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, Los Angeles, and Sacramento CA, Houston TX, Phoenix AZ, Washington DC, Beltsville MD, NYC, Boston MA, and Tempe AZ.

Top Hiring Alternative Energy Companies

The following companies are posting the largest numbers of job openings and offering lower cost, higher efficiency products:

  1. GE and GE Energy
  2. AEC Hunt, Inc. - Buildings, Infrastructure, Power & Energy
  3. Vestas - wind power.
  4. Solar Turbines, Inc.
  5. Goal Zero - solar products.
  6. Solarcity
  7. First Solar
  8. Johnson Controls
  9. ATK
  10. Areva

Additional Companies Hiring Now:

  • Nextera Energy, Down Corning, Power One, Pacific Gas & Electric Company, Aerotek Energy, and Rec Solar.

This information is available through search functions on two search engines that track all jobs listed on the Internet: SimplyHired.com and Indeed.com.

A barn operated on solar power.
A barn operated on solar power. | Source

Green World Investor Picks

Recently, the Green World Investor reported the Top Solar Panel Manufacturers in America. These leading companies included:

  1. First Solar. This is reported to be the largest maker of Solar Thin Film in the world. It is also reported as the lowest cost panel producer globally, at 74 cents per watt. It intends to lower this cost to 52 cents by early 2014. [www.firstsolar.com; 350 West Washington Street Tempe, AZ 85281-1244. PH (602) 414-9300]
  2. Sunpower. Home of the highest efficiency crystalline solar panels globally, with an installation business system as well. [www.sunpower.com]
  3. MEMC/SunEdison. This the only big American solar wafer producer, but is building a factory in Malaysia for cost reduction. Will expand into solar systems as well. [www.memc.com]
  4. Suniva. An entity constructed in the Georgia Institute of Technology’s University Center of Excellence in Photovoltaics (UCEP) to produce solar cells - the world’s highest commercially available cell efficiency. [www.suniva.com]
  5. Miasole. Produced a high efficiency thin film module.[www.miasole.com]
  6. Nanosolar. Interesting company backed by Google and other big names. [www.nanosolar.com; 5521 Hellyer Avenue San Jose, CA 95138. PH (408) 365-5960]
  7. Abound Solar. Manufacturing plants in Indiana and Colorado.[www.abound.com]
  8. Ascent Solar. Thin Film Panels on Flexible Substances. [www.ascentsolar.com]
  9. Energy Conversion Devices. Thin Film Technology and Flexible a-Si modules.[www.energyconversiondevices.com]
  10. General Electric. Invested in a Cadmium Tellurium start-up called Prime Star Solar.

© 2011 Patty Inglish MS

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)