US installs 1.1 GW of PV in Q2 2014, up 21% Y/Y

Sep 5, 2014 - The US added 1,133 MW of photovoltaic (PV) power capacity in the second quarter of 2014, up 21% year-on-year, and is projected to end up with 6,500 MW of PV installations for the full year, a new report shows.

This was the third consecutive quarter with more than 1,000 MW of installed PV capacity, according to the US Solar Market Insight report published today by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and GTM Research. The utility solar PV market alone installed 625 MW during the three-month period compared with 543 MW in the second quarter of 2013. It has now grown to 7,308 MW from 1,784 MW in the first half of 2012.

As a result, the country’s cumulative PV and concentrating solar power (CSP) operating capacity reached 15,900 MW at the end of June, which is enough to cover the power needs of over 3.2 million households. For CSP alone, a total of 857 MW is seen to be completed by the end of 2014.

“This remarkable growth is due, in large part, to smart and effective public policies, such as the solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC), net energy metering (NEM) and renewable portfolio standards (RPS),” said Rhone Resch, president and CEO of SEIA. He stressed that these policies should be maintained, if not even expanded.

The report also reveals that 53% of the newly-added US power generating capacity in the first half of the year was solar.

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