USA Joins the Elite Group Of Solar PV Markets

Online, September 18, 2013 (Newswire.com) - In 2010, the global market installed 10 gigawatts of PV solar in a single year. This year the market will reach more than 34 gigawatts. Fast-growing solar photovoltaic (PV) deployment levels since 2010 pushed the US into the ultra-exclusive 10 GW club, reports NPD Solarbuzz in the latest North America PV Market Quarterly report. The 832 megawatts installed in the U.S. in Q2 2013 brings the cumulative operating PV capacity in the U.S. to 8,858 megawatts, according to GTM Research. And that means the U.S. will eclipse the 10-gigawatt-installed mark later this year.

In fact, the GTM Research team has crunched the numbers and, has determined that the 10-gigawatt mark of solar installed in the U.S. will be achieved on October 18 at 3:14 p.m. Compared with most other countries' more centralized and nationalized solar energy support schemes, the U.S. solar market is more accurately defined, according to Barker, as a collection of "50 state-based markets with a layer of federal policy." And so credit solar incentive programs among the most solar-friendly states in the far-West and Mid-Atlantic regions, though southwest and southeast regions are increasing their contributions as well. And a comparative lack of ongoing solar development in the Great Plains and Great Lakes is really just "further market upside going forward," noted SolarBuzz analyst Chris Sunsong.

Note that Japan, which is having a stellar 2013 for solar PV, is catching up fast behind the U.S. in solar PV capacity and could top 10 GW cumulative in the next couple of months. What's driving the Japanese market these days is the non-residential feed-in tariff, which is helping the utility segment really take off, Barker said. Japan has kept up a good pace of implementing projects "relatively rapidly" but there are signs that the processes are slowing a bit, he noted.

In any case, GTM Research expects 4.4 gigawatts of PV to come on-line in the U.S. this year, up from 3.3 gigawatts in 2012, and ten times what was installed in 2009. With the 10-GW milestone in hand, the U.S. solar PV market isn't looking back. Many of the solar kit specialists Manufacturers are trying to come up newer and better ways to use the available technology. SolarBuzz expects the market to hit 17 GW by the end of 2014, representing 80 percent growth over 18 months.