North Carolina could create 28,000 new jobs if solar power grows to 14 percent of the state's electricity generation by 2030, according to a report released Wednesday by Environment North Carolina.

The jobs would pay workers an average of $43,000 annually and drive total gross investment in North Carolina of more than $2.5 billion each year, according to the report.

Those investments include money spent making solar energy equipment in North Carolina as well as raw materials purchased to make components for those systems, said Elizabeth Ouzts, state director of Environment North Carolina and co-author of the report.

North Carolina currently generates less than 1 percent of its electricity from the sun. Utilities face a state requirement to boost the percentage of electricity generated from renewable sources to 12.5 percent by 2021. The law sets a target of 0.2 percent of that power coming from solar energy by 2018.

Ouzts says North Carolina can get up to 14 percent of its electricity from solar power through residential and commercial solar energy rooftop installations as well as solar energy facilities built by the utilities.

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