Employment
8,867
Total employees (Census CBP)
Utilities ·NAICS 221114
NAICS 221114 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Solar Electric Power Generation - Industry Benchmarks
$137,930/yr average annual pay, with 143 SBA loans on record for NAICS 221114.
- 2.6%
- Utilities sector margin
- 9K
- Workers employed
- $137,930/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $82M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 221114
California leads Solar Electric Power Generation activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Utilities sector runs a 2.6% net margin.
- 2.6%
- Utilities sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 9K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $137,930/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $82M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Solar Electric Power Generation
Solar Electric Power Generation sits inside Utilities, a sector that runs a 2.6% net margin overall.
779 establishments employ 8,867 workers (11.4/location) at $137,930/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by North Carolina and New York.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$137,930/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
779
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 1,045; establishment count increased by 158. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $1.2B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 11.4
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 2,783 |
| North Carolina | 785 |
| New York | 474 |
| Connecticut | 232 |
| Virginia | 228 |
| Illinois | 90 |
| Georgia | 67 |
| Hawaii | 16 |
| Delaware | 7 |
| Oregon | 5 |
Showing top 10 of 36 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
143
Total Loan Volume
$82M
Avg Loan Size
$572K
Jobs Supported
2,153
Program Breakdown
7(a) 122 (85%)
504 21 (15%)
Top SBA Lender
Wells Fargo Bank National Association
13 loans in this industry
New Business Share
33.6% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 6
2021 23
2022 26
2023 18
2024 38
2025 29
2026 3
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Solar Electric Power Generation?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 221114 level. California leads this industry nationally. The broader Utilities sector runs a 2.6% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Solar Electric Power Generation?
779 business establishments. Together they employ 8,867 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Solar Electric Power Generation?
$137,930/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 11.4 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Solar Electric Power Generation employment?
California leads with 2,783 workers. North Carolina (785) and New York (474) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Solar Electric Power Generation receive?
Solar Electric Power Generation businesses received 143 SBA loans totaling $82 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $572K. These loans supported 2,153 jobs at origination. Most lending (85%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Comparable industry benchmarks
These links are calculated from the current national dataset. They are comparison paths, not recommendations or evidence that businesses operate alike.
How this ranks: Its Census employment total exceeds 13% of that same 801-industry cohort. Calculated by ranking this industry's reported value against every other industry at the same NAICS digit-level, not the whole dataset: comparing a 6-digit detail industry to a 2-digit sector would mix incompatible scales.
Closest workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
Benchmarking Solar Electric Power Generation
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Utilities
- 779 establishments, 8,867 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 143 SBA loans on record. SBA lending rankings
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.
Sources: IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Business Tax Statistics · Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023
NAICS 221114 · Data year: 2023
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released its 2023 County Business Patterns dataset in June 2025, PlainBizBench benchmarks 2,002 U.S. industries against Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income data. See our methodology for the full compilation process.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns / SUSB Industry employment scale, payroll, and firm-size benchmarks · 2023
Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates profit-margin, payroll, entity-type, and SBA-lending benchmarks for this industry, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.