The White House website may not even mention it as part of Donald Trump’s “America First Energy Plan” - but the US solar industry continues to post dramatic job growth numbers.

According to a new annual report by the non-profit Solar Foundation, more than 51,000 solar industry jobs were added in 2016, a 24.5 percent increase over 2015. Overall, the foundation finds, some 260,000 Americans now work in the solar industry.

“Jobs have nearly tripled since we first started tracking them in 2010 and this is the fourth consecutive year that the solar industry increased its jobs number by 20 percent or more,” said Andrea Luecke, president and executive director of the Solar Foundation. (The latest numbers are as of November 2016 and are compared with November 2015.)

The largest percentage of these jobs - over half - are in the installation of solar panels, especially for residential uses but also in larger solar arrays. In other words, the growth in part reflects the fact that more and more American families and businesses are turning to solar.

The growing 2016 numbers were partly a reflection of the timing of an expected lapse of the solar investment tax credit at the end of 2016 - many projects were slated to be completed before that occurred, but then the credit ended up being extended and now phases down between 2019 and 2022.

Last year is also expected to have been the largest year on record for the total increase in US solar electricity generating capacity - some 14 billion watts of added capacity are forecast, although the final numbers are not in yet.

The new report calculates that for total jobs, solar is now the second largest US energy industry, second only to oil and petroleum and considerably larger than coal.

Strikingly, solar seems to be winning across the United States. The biggest state for jobs by far is California which now has over 100,000 of them, but solar jobs generally grew in states across the country. In Indiana, they nearly doubled from 1,567 to 2,700 in one year.

Other states seeing big growth included Louisiana, Michigan, Texas, and Utah.

10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Show all 10 1 /10 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A group of emperor penguins face a crack in the sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica Kira Morris 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Floods destroyed eight bridges and ruined crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with many glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have been in retreat, creating dangerously large lakes that can cause devastating flooding when the banks break. Climate change can also increase rainfall in some areas, while bringing drought to others. Hira Ali 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Smoke – filled with the carbon that is driving climate change – drifts across a field in Colombia. Sandra Rondon 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Amid a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft searches for somewhere dry to take shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world to sea level rise, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050. Probal Rashid 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Sindh province in Pakistan has experienced a grim mix of two consequences of climate change. “Because of climate change either we have floods or not enough water to irrigate our crop and feed our animals,” says the photographer. “Picture clearly indicates that the extreme drought makes wide cracks in clay. Crops are very difficult to grow.” Rizwan Dharejo 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull glacier in Iceland, which she said had been growing rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers on Iceland has reduced by 12 per cent. Tom Schifanella 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A river once flowed along the depression in the dry earth of this part of Bangladesh, but it has disappeared amid rising temperatures. Abrar Hossain 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A shepherd moves his herd as he looks for green pasture near the village of Sirohi in Rajasthan, northern India. The region has been badly affected by heatwaves and drought, making local people nervous about further predicted increases in temperature. Riddhima Singh Bhati 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A factory in China is shrouded by a haze of air pollution. The World Health Organisation has warned such pollution, much of which is from the fossil fuels that cause climate change, is a “public health emergency”. Leung Ka Wa 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Water levels in reservoirs, like this one in Gers, France, have been getting perilously low in areas across the world affected by drought, forcing authorities to introduce water restrictions. Mahtuf Ikhsan

“Every single one of the states that voted for President Trump, with the exception of Tennessee, had growth, and all battleground states, they all added substantially,” Luecke said. “We’re seeing solar jobs everywhere.”

The industry’s growth is not expected to be as fast in 2017, however - more like 10 percent. That may in part be because the industry will be losing some of its Obama-era exuberance and trying to figure out how to shift into the Trump years.

The survey was “administered right after the election so a lot of people were also cautious,” Luecke said. Solar stocks plunged the day after Trump’s election. Solar will continue to grow in the Trump era - falling costs of panels and continuing momentum are likely to ensure that. But whether a highly favourable policy environment continues very much remains to be seen.