Will AI replace Solar Energy Systems Engineers?
AI reaches a large part of this job’s work.
45/100
High exposure
More exposed to AI than 72% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 0% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 67% of the work
What the job involves
Perform site-specific engineering analysis or evaluation of energy efficiency and solar projects involving residential, commercial, or industrial customers. Design solar domestic hot water and space heating systems for new and existing structures, applying knowledge of structural energy requirements, local climates, solar technology, and thermodynamics.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Within reach(9)
- Create plans for solar energy system development, monitoring, and evaluation activities.
- Create electrical single-line diagrams, panel schedules, or connection diagrams for solar electric systems, using computer-aided design (CAD) software.
- Perform computer simulation of solar photovoltaic (PV) generation system performance or energy production to optimize efficiency.
- Design or coordinate design of photovoltaic (PV) or solar thermal systems, including system components, for residential and commercial buildings.
- Develop standard operation procedures and quality or safety standards for solar installation work.
and 4 more
Out of reach(4)
- Conduct engineering site audits to collect structural, electrical, and related site information for use in the design of residential or commercial solar power systems.
- Provide technical direction or support to installation teams during installation, start-up, testing, system commissioning, or performance monitoring.
- Review specifications and recommend engineering or manufacturing changes to achieve solar design objectives.
- Test or evaluate photovoltaic (PV) cells or modules.
Also called
Solar Engineer · Engineer · Solar Design Engineer · Solar Designer · Solar Energy Engineer · Consulting Engineer · Photovoltaic System Designer (PV System Designer) · Power Systems Engineer
Related jobs
What these numbers mean
The score is the share of this job’s work, weighted by how important and frequent each task is, that AI could do in half the time: tasks an AI model could do alone count in full, tasks that need software built on AI count half.
“AI already used” is the share of the work in tasks where people are recorded using AI today. “As AI tools mature” counts every task AI could halve, with or without extra software.
The percentile compares the score with every job’s, weighted by how many people in the US do each one. Exposure means AI could change how the work is done, not that the job goes away. These are estimates for the typical job, not predictions.
Sources
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
- GPTs are GPTs: Labor market impact potential of LLMs (task labels), Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), OpenAI and University of Pennsylvania
- Anthropic Economic Index: labor market impacts (task penetration), Anthropic
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (national and metropolitan areas), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics