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The US Solar Market Is Growing Ridiculously Fast

Mother Jones

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At the end of 2015, the solar industry experienced something of a Christmas miracle when Congress unexpectedly extended a package of vital tax credits for renewable energy that were set to expire. Overnight, 2016 went from looking like it was certain to be a bust to looking like one of the biggest growth years on record.

New analysis from the energy market research firm GTM paints a picture of the awesome year solar installers in the United States have ahead of them. GTM predicts solar installations to jump 119 percent in 2016, adding 16 gigawatts of new solar by year’s end. (For reference, in 2011 there were only 10 gigawatts of solar installed total across the country.) Most of that is utility-scale solar farms, with the remainder coming from rooftop panels on homes and businesses.

This clean energy boost isn’t just a boon for the industry; as a result of the tax credit extension, greenhouse gas savings from solar and wind installations could add up by 2030 to the equivalent of taking every car in the country off the road for two years, a recent study found.

Here’s the chart from the report. Show this to anyone who still thinks solar is some kind of fringe, hippie pipe dream:

GTM Research/SEIA

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The US Solar Market Is Growing Ridiculously Fast

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Here Comes the Sun: America’s Solar Boom, in Charts

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It’s been a bit player, but solar power is about to shine. Izu navi/Flickr Last week, an energy analyst at Deutsche Bank came to a startling conclusion: By 2016, solar power will be as cheap or cheaper than electricity from the conventional grid in every state except three. That’s without any changes to existing policy. In other words, we’re only a few years away from the point where, in most of the United States, there will be no economic reason not to go solar. If you care about slowing climate change or just moving toward cleaner energy, that is a huge deal. And solar energy is already going gangbusters. In the past decade, the amount of solar power produced in the United States has leaped 139,000 percent. A number of factors are behind the boom: Cheaper panels and a raft of local and state incentives, plus a federal tax credit that shaves 30 percent off the cost of upgrading. Still, solar is a bit player, providing less than half of 1 percent of the energy produced in the United States. But its potential is massive—it could power the entire country 100 times over. So what’s the holdup? A few obstacles: pushback from old-energy diehards, competition with other efficient energy sources, and the challenges of power storage and transmission. But with solar in the Southwest already at “grid parity”—meaning it costs the same or less as electricity from conventional sources—Wall Street is starting to see solar as a sound bet. As a recent Citigroup investment report put it, “Our viewpoint is that solar is here to stay.” Some numbers that tell the story: Sources Solar growth: Solar Energy Industries Association New solar installations: SEIA Sunlight: Sandia National Lab, Energy Information Agency/National Renewable Energy Laboratory Electricity generating capacity: SEIA Carbon savings, electricity demand: SEIA, EIA/NREL Installed PV capacity: International Energy Agency Solar jobs: The Solar Foundation, Bureau of Labor Statistics Solar panels on a typical house: NREL Panel cost, VC funding: Greenpeace; Mercom Capital Group (2013 & 2014) Image credits: Shutterstock (Earth, USA); Maurizio Fusillo/Noun Project (solar panel); Okan Benn/Noun Project (car); Q. Li/Noun Project (chart); Sergey Krivoy/Noun Project (coal trolley); Marcio Duarte/Noun Project (worker); Alex Berkowitz/Noun Project (cash)

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Here Comes the Sun: America’s Solar Boom, in Charts

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Here Comes the Sun: America’s Solar Boom, in Charts

Posted in alo, ALPHA, eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, growing marijuana, horticulture, Monterey, ONA, oven, OXO, solar, solar panels, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Here Comes the Sun: America’s Solar Boom, in Charts