Solar Power Blowing Up in the United States
A new report out by the Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA) and GTM Research, the inaugural U.S. Solar Market Insight™ report, finds that solar power is going to continue its rapid growth in the United States.
2010 has been the best year ever for solar power in the United States, but much more is expected in the future. “Solar is now the fastest growing energy industry in the U.S., employing nearly 100,000 Americans and generating billions of dollars of economic growth for our economy,” President and CEO of the SEIA Rhone Resch writes.
By 2015, as you can see in the graph above, the solar industry is expected to grow several times over, perhaps even reaching a total of 10 GW of installed solar power capacity, enough to power 2 million homes.
“We can install so much solar energy that we will eliminate the need for any new coal or nuclear power plants in the U.S. ever again,” Resch writes.
Total 2010 installations are going to more than double solar power capacity in the US. The baseline estimate is that 944 MW of solar electric capacity will be installed by the end of the year, and the high forecast shows solar capacity rising above 1 GW and reaching 1.13 GW of capacity. At the end of 2009, solar electric capacity was at 441 MW.
“First half solar installations grew beyond expectations as a result of declining prices, continued government support and improving financial conditions.” said Shayle Kann, Solar Managing Director at GTM Research. “In spite of continued macroeconomic woes, the U.S. solar industry is on track to have a record year in 2010 for both installations and manufacturing.”
Clean Energy Creates Jobs and Attracts Businesses
Another recent study out by independent, non-partisan organization Next 10, the 2010 California Green Innovation Index, also details how clean energy such as solar is creating jobs and attracting businesses in California.
California received 40% of global clean tech venture capital in the first half of 2010, $11.6 billion, largely due to its strong clean energy focus.
With clean tech being the top venture capital investment category in the world and investment in this sector soaring in 2010, it is common sense that promoting clean energy in your city, state, or country is a smart thing to do.
It is very clear that clean energy and especially solar energy are on a strong upward rise. That’s good news for the environment, good news for our health, and good news for any economies, small or large, that take the lead in this growing sector.
Of course, that’s one reason why it would makes sense for anyone living in California (not directly benefiting from our out-dated dependence on dirty energy) to vote “No” on Prop 23.
Related Stories:
- International Solar PV Nearly Doubled, PV Growth Doubled in 2010
- Cleantech’s Revolutionary Growth & Expectations for Coming 10 Years
- When You Shouldn’t Buy Solar in California
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We sure hope you’re right Zachary. We’ve got a lot of eggs in this basket!
I’m not surprised that solar power is blowing up in the United States. Why wouldn’t everyone what to go green and save money? I agree that solar power for homes is the only answer to our current energy issues. I recently installed sharp’s solar panels to the roof of my home. While I now work for them, they honestly offer the highest quality product at a reasonable price. I was really pleased with the deal I was able to get, as well as the immediate benefits to both the environment and my wallet. I would definitely recommend them.
Some recent takes on the industry in mainstream media aren’t nearly as optimistic:
Silicon Valley’s Solar Innovators Forced to Retool
http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=679314&f=24
Green Startups: Trapped In the ‘Valley of Death’
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2010/tc2010106_187335.htm
i find it highly suspect that you have a graph with no history (pre 2010) and then extrapolate into the future. The projects might be right, who knows, but just showing that chart is bogus logic.
@Dave: it would be nice if it included previous growth, which actually was similar. but this is based on things such as the dropping cost of solar, the rising cost of other energy sources, etc… i’m sure they used the previous years’ data though & showing those data in such a graph would be useful as well. things is, we cover that periodically on this site, so I think our normal readers are quite familiar with the info.
I am glad to see the AllenWestForCongress ads !
Allen West says: energy is priority one !
RonKlein says whatever King Oumbama and Pelosi tell him to say.
Its nice to get some facts to support what we have been feeling on the ground here for some time- Solar is the next big thing.
It is nice to have renewable energy on the rise, but this post is far from hopeful. It shows a meager linear rise in output of solar.
If you take a look electricity production in the us (wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_the_United_States ), you’ll see that from 1992-2005 (13 years) 284 GW of electricity production was added, or roughly 20GW/yr, and this graph (optimistically) shows a 2!!!! GW/yr increase.
Looking at the rates of production of *all* renewable energy in the U.S., you can see that we’ve been making less and less (as a %age of total electricity) over the years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_the_United_States
We need to up the renewable electricity production by an order of magnitude, if not several orders of magnitude.
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sorry, but this is not an article placed by solar panel salesmen. yes, if you look further back, solar power has been “blowing up” (http://cleantechnica.com/2011/03/28/cleantechs-revolutionary-growth-expectations-for-coming-10-years/) — but even if you don’t do that, the point that solar more than doubled in 2010 warrants that phrase. http://cleantechnica.com/2011/02/17/international-solar-pv-nearly-doubled-pv-growth-doubled-in-2010/
projected growth is not based on nothing. it is based on a number of factors that have been carefully analyzed — dropping costs, government support, demand, and so on
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Despite all the subsidies, Solar hasn’t even kept up with increased demand. In the last year $300 billion was spent on wind and solar schemes. Demand increased by 3X as much.
Solar and wind are NOT a solution. They are simply expensive supplements. The solar-charade will collapse soon.
Bogus Andrew