Job Check
Solar Energy Systems Engineers
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.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Conduct engineering site audits to collect structural, electrical, and related site information for use in the design of residential or commercial solar power systems.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 02Create plans for solar energy system development, monitoring, and evaluation activities.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 03Design or coordinate design of photovoltaic (PV) or solar thermal systems, including system components, for residential and commercial buildings.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 04Provide technical direction or support to installation teams during installation, start-up, testing, system commissioning, or performance monitoring.Mostly human for now
- 05Create electrical single-line diagrams, panel schedules, or connection diagrams for solar electric systems, using computer-aided design (CAD) software.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 06Perform computer simulation of solar photovoltaic (PV) generation system performance or energy production to optimize efficiency.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 07Review specifications and recommend engineering or manufacturing changes to achieve solar design objectives.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 08Develop design specifications and functional requirements for residential, commercial, or industrial solar energy systems or components.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 09Develop standard operation procedures and quality or safety standards for solar installation work.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 10Create checklists for review or inspection of completed solar installation projects.AI could speed this up a lot
Tasks from O*NET® 31.0 (US Department of Labor, CC BY 4.0, changed by us), most important first. “Already use” comes from Anthropic’s data on real work chats with Claude; “could speed up” from task ratings made with GPT-4 in 2023.
Four studies, side by side
None is a forecast of job loss7%of this job’s work time goes to tasks that people already do with Claude at work, counting tasks where AI only helps as half (2026).Anthropic, 2026
46%of this job’s tasks an AI model could do in half the time, counting tasks that need extra tools as half (rated in 2023).Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin and Rock, 2023
Above 71% of jobsin how often and how well AI helped with this job’s work in Microsoft Copilot chats (2024 data).Microsoft Research (Tomlinson et al.), 2025
Your human edge
The main tasks with no real AI use seen and no big speed-up expected. This is where your skill counts most today.
- Provide technical direction or support to installation teams during installation, start-up, testing, system commissioning, or performance monitoring.