[Excerpt] To address the impending climate crisis, reduce global emissions, and meet the demands of decarbonization, solar energy must rapidly grow in the next two decades. The United States is projected to need 1,118 gigawatts (GW) of solar energy by 2050 under a high-electricity demand scenario (Gagnon et al., 2024; National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 2024), with over 60 GW to be installed in NYS alone (New York State Climate Action Council, 2022). In the past decade, NYS has increased its solar installations by over 2,000%; yet by the end of 2023, only 5.56 GW of solar capacity had been installed in the state (New York Independent System Operator, 2014; New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, 2024a; Solar Energy Industries Association, 2024) which may be due to the infancy of the industry. With solar installations critical growth in New York, and the United States as a whole, comes the question: will these construction projects create the high-quality jobs with family-sustaining wages American communities need?