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

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.

Comments

What is it per person?

[houghi]

As the US is bigger than e.g. Denmark, just saying they are largest means not that much to me. Sure, it is a lot, but how much is it per person and where will they be on the list then?

And 29.4% of new energy sounds nice as well (wind was even higher with 39%), but what is it in the total amount of energy and where is the US in that (trow in wind if you like)

This reads like the average CEO presentation where a lot of numbers look nice, but mean nothing. At least not really.

So I would like to see:
1) Numbers per person.
2) Compare it to ALL of the energy (including car fuel) not only new installs

Re:What is it per person?

[110010001000]

Lots of things are subsidized by the government and our tax dollars. Like $550,000,000,000 PER YEAR IN DEFENSE SPENDING. More than 20 times the amount of the top 10 biggest spenders COMBINED. I'm not worried about tens of millions in subsidized alternative energy rebates that arguably helps to make our country cleaner. Get a grip people.

Re:What is it per person?

[penguinoid]

Lots of things are subsidized by the government and our tax dollars. Like $550,000,000,000 PER YEAR IN DEFENSE SPENDING. More than 20 times the amount of the top 10 biggest spenders COMBINED. I'm not worried about tens of millions in subsidized alternative energy rebates that arguably helps to make our country cleaner. Get a grip people.

While that is true, it is worth noting that the spending on defense is in fact the primary purpose of our federal government, it is right in the Constitution.

Spending on solar panels is not.

Isn't spending on solar the same as spending on defense, security-wise? Isn't our need for oil, and our giving tons of money to countries which hate us, one of the major reasons we need so much defense?

Energy self-sufficiency is national security.

What is that in REAL wattage?

[Anonymous Coward]

So.... what is that in AC Wattage units? (Considering I've worked at several power plants I ought to know this.)

Reading towards the end of the article it seems to indicate 100-200 MW total, which is not worth bragging about considering how much electricity we produce and consume in the United States.

The plant I work at now consumes around 100 MW when running, we have 6 on site gas turbines producing 20MW each.

Solar Photovoltaic and solar thermal unfortunately do not have a good track record for going up to the 500 to 1000 MW range which is what you want for a nice utility sized power plant. Maybe we could have more small solar power plants, unfortunately they have a large foot print in terms of space used. (How many square miles would it take for a 1000 MW sized PV plant?)

Before anyone even starts, de-centralized power is in 'development' stage. I see rooftop solar as more of an energy saver/efficiency more than anything else but not a 'break even' per se. I expect most of the coal plants in the U.S. will get replaced with natural gas.

The real interesting thing will be when all the nuclear units that went online in the 70s and 80s need to be replaced... fun times ahead.

Re:What is that in REAL wattage?

[FlyHelicopters]

Before anyone even starts, de-centralized power is in 'development' stage. I see rooftop solar as more of an energy saver/efficiency more than anything else but not a 'break even' per se. I expect most of the coal plants in the U.S. will get replaced with natural gas.

I've looked into rooftop solar three times, the most recent two months ago.

I spoke with a local solar installer. It just makes no sense, no matter how far you turn your head to the side. And that is with the federal government picking up 30% of the cost outright, plus another rebate from the local power company, plus cheap financing. It STILL makes zero sense.

You have to REALLY make a lot of assumptions about the future for it to kinda sorta make sense. As in, regular power prices will double over the next decade. And the new equipment will work for 20 years trouble free. And you'll always get net-metering. And it will add 50% of the system cost to the value of your home.

And so on. Do all that, and yea, it can make sense. But it takes ALL of that, plus the tax money, to work.

SolarCity - Tax dollars - Why this is happening

[FlyHelicopters]

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.

40% distributed PV capacity is in CA

[FlyHelicopters]

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.

Re:Meanwhile in Indian

[Zocalo]

There's clearly a lot of spin in the article linked to by the OP, for instance, they mention that the US has a similar protectionist clause in place, but the US version is apparently OK with the WTO - yet they don't explain why that is, which is a rather crucial point. If the US had somehow manipulated the WTO into letting them do something then used the WTO to stop India doing the same that's entirely different to the US complying with WTO guidelines and India failing to do so. I also suspect there's more to it that just some Ts I simply don't believe the Indian government would scrap a multi-billion dollar project just because they couldn't be bothered to re-tender it without the problematic clause.

On the other hand, the US *does* have a track record for abusing the WTO to get what's best for the US (along with many other countries), blatantly ignoring WTO rulings that go against it (e.g. online gambling), and the main point of the article, that treaties like TPP are almost certainly going to be abused to enforce what corporates what over what's best for the population at large, is still valid, even if they possibly didn't find the best example of such abuse.