Will AI replace Solar Thermal Installers and Technicians?
AI reaches little of this job’s work.
7/100
Low exposure
More exposed to AI than 12% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 0% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 9% of the work
What the job involves
Install or repair solar energy systems designed to collect, store, and circulate solar-heated water for residential, commercial or industrial use.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Within reach(2)
- Demonstrate start-up, shut-down, maintenance, diagnostic, and safety procedures to thermal system owners.
- Design active direct or indirect, passive direct or indirect, or pool solar systems.
Out of reach(19)
- Test operation or functionality of mechanical, plumbing, electrical, and control systems.
- Apply weather seal, such as pipe flashings and sealants, to roof penetrations and structural devices.
- Determine locations for installing solar subsystem components, including piping, water heaters, valves, and ancillary equipment.
- Identify plumbing, electrical, environmental, or safety hazards associated with solar thermal installations.
- Install copper or plastic plumbing using pipes, fittings, pipe cutters, acetylene torches, solder, wire brushes, sand cloths, flux, plastic pipe cleaners, or plastic glue.
and 14 more
Also called
Solar Hot Water Installer (SHW Installer) · Solar System Installer · Solar Technician · Solar Thermal Installer · SHW Installer · Solar Thermal Technician · Installer · Solar Energy Technician
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