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US Projected To Lead the World In New Solar Installations This Year (computerworld.com)

Posted by timothy on from the jigawatts-soon dept.

Lucas123 writes: The U.S. solar market is expected to grow 120% this year, with 16GW of new solar power, more than double the record-breaking 7.3GW installed in 2015. The total operating solar PV capacity in the U.S. is expected to reach 25.6 gigawatts (billion watts or GW) of direct current (DC) by the end of the year, according to GTM Research's U.S. Solar Market Insight Report 2015 Year in Review. When accounting for all projects (both distributed and centralized), solar accounted for 29.4% of new electric generating capacity installed in the U.S. in 2015, exceeding the total for natural gas for the first time and it will put the U.S. ahead of all other nations with regard to new solar installations for 2016.

2 of 314 comments (clear)

  1. SolarCity - Tax dollars - Why this is happening by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 4, Informative

    Last year I called SolarCity, they are offering to install panels for "free" to your home, then sell you the power for less than you're paying now.

    Sounds like a no-brainer, right? No up front cost, no maintenance, guaranteed power for less than you're paying now.

    Why NOT say yes?

    Except, they won't install in my area. They WILL install 2 miles away, because that is a different electric energy provider that gives bigger rebates than mine does (I live in a co-op that doesn't provide huge rebates and tax incentives).

    ---

    So it really comes down to the fact that all this solar makes sense only if you count on a whole pile of tax dollars.

    Even utility scale solar, which I've looked at investing in purely from an investment point of view, requires tax dollars to make work.

    http://www.absolutelysolar.com...
    FIT Program Areas
    FIT â" LADWP: The Department of Water and Powerâ(TM)s new solar Feed-In Tariff program. Buildings and land in the city of Los Angeles and parts of the Owens Valley are eligible.
    Look at the very bottom of that page:

    http://energy.gov/savings/ladw...
    And there is the program, promising to pay FAR above the "going rate" of power.

    So solar works, assuming you can count on the government money to keep flowing.

  2. 40% distributed PV capacity is in CA by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 4, Informative

    A few interesting points from the article:

    1. Almost 40% of the distributed PV capacity in the U.S. is located in California. The next nine states after California account for another 44%, according to the EIA.

    This is key because CA pays one of the highest kWh rates in the US (places like Hawaii are higher, but there aren't that many people there).

    http://www.bls.gov/regions/wes...

    San Francisco pays 40% higher energy prices on average than the rest of the US. So of COURSE solar makes more sense there. But it doesn't most other places.

    California's leadership in distributed solar capacity is driven by a combination of factors, including high electricity prices, a large population, strong solar resources, and state policies and incentives that support solar PV, according to the EIA.

    2. One of the factors spurring growth last year and this was the impending expiration of the U.S. government's solar investment tax credit (ITC). That measure, passed in 2008, offered a 30% tax credit for residential and business installations. It was due to expire this year, and the tax credit was supposed to drop to a more permanent 10%. In December, however, Congress passed a three-year extension on the 30% ITC.

    So a crap load of tax dollars are propping this market up. It actually goes further than this. There are many state and Dept of Energy programs that further fix the rate of solar power to above market rates, to provide guaranteed returns for utility solar power.

    http://energy.gov/public-servi...
    Just a sample of some of the various programs to pay for solar and wind.

    3. The total operating solar PV capacity in the U.S. is expected to reach 25.6 gigawatts (billion watts or GW) of direct current (DC) by the end of the year, according to GTM Research's U.S. Solar Market Insight Report 2015 Year in Review. Last year, solar installations broke all previous records, but the amount was only 16% more than in 2014 with 7,260 GW of new DC solar power.

    That sounds impressive, doesn't it? Well, consider this:
    In 2014, the United States generated about 4,093 billion kilowatt hours of electricity.

    So the new DC solar power being installed is 7.2 billion out of 4,093 billion total. It is nice, but we could install that much every year for the next 20 years and it wouldn't make a real dent in the total.