US solar capacity grows from 0.5 GW to 20 GW in 10 yrs, to double soon

The US’ solar energy capacity surged from 500 MW in 2004 to 20,000 MW at the end of 2014 and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) expects it to double over the next two years alone.

A new SEIA report, shows that 97% of the new solar capacity in the period under review has been installed after the introduction of the solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC). Between 2004 and 2014 the cumulative investment in installed US solar capacity jumped from USD 2.6 billion (EUR 2.3bn) to USD 71.1 billion.

“Without question, effective, forward-looking public policies, like the solar ITC, Net Energy Metering (NEM) and Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS), are helping to drive solar energy’s remarkable growth,” said SEIA President and CEO Rhone Resch.

The report “Solar Energy in the United States: A Decade of Record Growth” shows that over the 10 years under review the average price for utility-scale solar farms have lost over 73%, while the prices for residential PV systems has gone down by over 60%. In 2004, there were just 365 MW of utility-scale solar parks in the US and 10 years later the total was 11,440 MW.

SEIA further calculates that in 2004 there were less than 20,000 solar jobs. In 2014 the count soared to 174,000 “with new jobs being added every day”.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.898)

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