If there has been one solar success story of the past 12 months, it’s been America, which has steadily become a PV powerhouse. We present an exclusive breakdown of all the salient facts and stats, courtesy of the very latest SEIA/GTM Research U.S. Solar Market Insight report.
The U.S. solar industry has much to celebrate about the year 2013. Photovoltaic installations continued to proliferate, increasing 41% over 2012 to reach 4,751 MW. Solar was the second-largest source of new electricity generating capacity in the U.S., exceeded only by natural gas. And the cost to install solar fell throughout the year, with average system prices ending the year 15% below the mark set at the end of 2012.
The U.S. solar market showed the first real glimpse of its path toward mainstream status in 2013. The combination of rapid customer adoption, grassroots support for solar, improved financing terms, and public market successes indicated clear gains for solar in the eyes of both the general population and the investment community. And in the long term, a mainstream solar industry will need customers who seek out and support solar, as well as investors who see an attractive risk-adjusted opportunity in the market.
The solar industry also became a major part of a much larger discussion that took center stage in 2013 around the future of electricity and electric utilities. As distributed solar gains steam, and as adjacent technologies such as energy storage become economically viable, the traditional utility business model is increasingly called into question.
Throughout the electricity industry, 2013 was the year of catchphrases such as “utility 2.0” and “utility of the future.” Utilities themselves began to stake out positions on all sides of the issue, some seeking to protect their current territory and others investing in distributed generation – capitalising on the opportunity that comes with change.
