AI exposure: Solar Thermal Installers and Technicians
Install or repair solar energy systems designed to collect, store, and circulate solar-heated water for residential, commercial or industrial use.
Reading this score
computedSolar Thermal Installers and Technicians is among the least exposed occupations measured, at 7.0% of weighted task load, rank 847 of 923. 86.5% of this job is work current AI systems cannot produce at all. That is not a statement about skill or value. It is a statement about what these systems can and cannot do.
What holds the line here is embodiment. Across this occupation's 21 tasks it averages 2.71 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work has to happen in physical space. A language model cannot move matter. Until the robotics to do this work is both good enough and cheap enough to deploy widely, capability in software does not reach it.
The most exposed thing this job does is Demonstrate start-up, shut-down, maintenance, diagnostic, and safety procedures to thermal..., at 66.7%. The least is Apply ultraviolet radiation protection to prevent degradation of plumbing, at 0.0%. A gap of 66.7% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within construction and extraction occupations, this one is more exposed than most. The median across the 61 roles in the group is 5.0%, and only 22 of them score higher than this. Occupational families are not uniform, and the spread inside them is often wider than the gap between them.
What would move this score. Of 21 tasks, 1 are currently banded exposed, 2 assisted and 18 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take robotics cheap and reliable enough to deploy at scale, not a better language model. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 0.50 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.71 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.21 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 1.38 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.19 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.64 | 0-3 |
Task by task
21 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Demonstrate start-up, shut-down, maintenance, diagnostic, and safety procedures to thermal system owners. | 66.7% | 33.3% | 0.0% | 4.30 | exposed |
| Determine locations for installing solar subsystem components, including piping, water heaters, valves, and ancillary equipment. | 30.0% | 45.0% | 25.0% | 4.15 | assisted |
| Assess collector sites to ensure structural integrity of potential mounting surfaces or the best orientation and tilt for solar collectors. | 23.3% | 26.7% | 50.0% | 4.04 | assisted |
| Test operation or functionality of mechanical, plumbing, electrical, and control systems. | 10.0% | 15.0% | 75.0% | 4.46 | untouched |
| Fill water tanks and check tanks, pipes, and fittings for leaks. | 6.7% | 5.8% | 87.5% | 4.16 | untouched |
| Apply weather seal, such as pipe flashings and sealants, to roof penetrations and structural devices. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.44 | untouched |
| Install solar collector mounting devices on tile, asphalt, shingle, or built-up gravel roofs, using appropriate materials and penetration methods. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.34 | untouched |
| Install copper or plastic plumbing using pipes, fittings, pipe cutters, acetylene torches, solder, wire brushes, sand cloths, flux, plastic pipe cleaners, or plastic glue. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.33 | untouched |
| Identify plumbing, electrical, environmental, or safety hazards associated with solar thermal installations. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.31 | untouched |
| Install circulating pumps using pipe, fittings, soldering equipment, electrical supplies, and hand tools. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.27 | untouched |
| Install flat-plat, evacuated glass, or concentrating solar collectors on mounting devices, using brackets or struts. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.27 | untouched |
| Install solar thermal system controllers and sensors. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.25 | untouched |
| Design active direct or indirect, passive direct or indirect, or pool solar systems. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.15 | untouched |
| Perform routine maintenance or repairs to restore solar thermal systems to baseline operating conditions. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.14 | untouched |
| Install heat exchangers and heat exchanger fluids according to installation manuals and schematics. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.13 | untouched |
| Apply operation or identification tags or labels to system components, as required. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.13 | untouched |
| Connect water heaters and storage tanks to power and water sources. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.12 | untouched |
| Cut, miter, and glue piping insulation to insulate plumbing pipes and fittings. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.10 | untouched |
| Install plumbing, such as dip tubes, port fittings, drain tank valves, pressure temperature relief valves, or tanks, according to manufacturer specifications and building codes. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.07 | untouched |
| Install monitoring system components, such as flow meters, temperature gauges, and pressure gauges, according to system design and manufacturer specifications. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.07 | untouched |
| Apply ultraviolet radiation protection to prevent degradation of plumbing. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.93 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.
What this means in practice
Most of this work is not reachable by current systems, so the immediate pressure is on the administrative edges of the role rather than its core: the scheduling, the reporting, the written records. That is where time is recovered.