It’s an obvious symbolism — one where the sun is overhead and spreading power and light compared to that of coal, which is underground where it is dark and dank. One is the future where the sky may be the limit and other is the past, where its workers will need to find new opportunities.
With the right incentives, coal industry employees could find the same gleam that their peers in the solar sector now have. That’s according to Michigan University associate professor Joshua Pearce and Oregon State University’s Ph.D student Edward Louie, who published a study that appears in the Journal of Energy Economics. Their premise is that the growth in solar energy employment in the United States over 15 years could offset and absorb the job losses that have occurred in the domestic coal business.
“The coal industry is on a downward slope from which it won’t get off,” says Professor Pearce, who teaches electrical engineering, in a conversation with this reporter. “There is too much competition from not just natural gas but also renewables, and especially solar.” 

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