July 27, 2011
In what continues to be an era of slow growth for the U.S. economy, the domestic solar industry continued its impressive growth rate into the first quarter of 2011, according to a report released last month by the Solar Energy Industries Association and GTM Research.
Compared to the first quarter of 2010, the industry grew 66%, while domestic manufacturing of PV equipment grew at 31%. 2010 itself was an outstanding year; with 887 megawatts installed, it more than doubled the total for the year before, and the Q1 2011 figure represents over 28% of that 2010 annual figure.
This is not data to take to an international conference, however. Solar growth overseas has been accelerating even faster than at home, with the result that U.S. global market share has decreased since 2009 from 6% to 5.1%.
There is better news on the utility-scale front, however, where the U.S. could actually achieve world leadership. Some 1100 MW of concentrating solar and concentrating PV power is currently under construction, with eight times that much in the planning stage.
The report also shows that 88% of this year’s solar installations were in just seven states: California, New Jersey, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Colorado, New York and Massachusetts, a 12% increase on 2010′s figure. It appears that those states already leading the pack are finding reasons to increase their solar investment.
The full U.S. Solar Market Insight (TM) report can be found here.
May 31, 2011
As photovoltaic installations become more commonplace across the country, the solar industry pays increasing attention to ways of reducing operational costs. Much of this effort is focused on system and installation costs, e.g., more efficient modules, standardized mounting systems, alternative materials, etc., but the effort can be brought to naught by balance-of-system costs, i.e., those costs not related to the actual hardware or the act of fixing it in place and making it work.
Devil in the Details
One of the most egregiously additive balance-of-system line items in a typical installation bill covers permitting costs. These are the direct and indirect charges related to the local jurisdiction signing off on a solar installation, and include fees levied by the city, county or state for the all-important piece of paper headed ‘permit’, not to mention the costs passed on by your installer for time spent pacing the corridors of power while waiting for that permit.
Permitting fees have become a significant component of total solar installations costs (up to 5% – 10%, depending on location) for several reasons. Typically, local jurisdictions are responsible for setting permitting requirements, which means that the officials charged with doing so are often unfamiliar with the technology and its requirements. The result can be permitting procedures that are not only unnecessarily complex but also inconsistent with those of neighboring jurisdictions, adding to the administrative burden borne by the solar installer operating in multiple areas. Within a local government operation, moreover, multiple departments may be required to review an application, stretching out that timeline and adding to total costs. And yet, a typical PV system in Albany is not so dissimilar from one in Wichita that a national standard for permitting practices could not be employed in both places. (more…)
May 31, 2011
A West Virginia entrepreneur is busy mapping and cataloging the solar power potential of every roof in the world.
You can read about his company, and how it might affect you, in this Forbes Magazine article.
February 24, 2011
Suddenly solar seems to be as cheap as, or cheaper than, a lot of dirtier alternatives. That’s our reading of a handful of stories from around the nation lately.
You may remember us writing about the North Carolina study that showed that solar power would be cheaper than new nuclear construction. Six months on, it may now be nipping at the heels of natural gas in many parts of the country.
Large-scale…
The National Renewable Energy laboratory (NREL) of Golden, CO has teamed with solar company Amonix to develop a solar power concentrator that, according to its creators, can generate electricity at prices competitive with natural gas.
photo credit Dennis Schroeder
The NREL-Amonix partnership has resulted in the Amonix 7700 Concentrated Photovoltaic Solar Power Generator, which uses acrylic Fresnel lenses to magnify sunlight up to 500 times and concentrate it onto 7560 high-efficiency multijunction PV cells. (more…)
December 15, 2010
The 111th Congress did so little to distinguish itself in preparing us for our energy future that it’s hard to imagine the 112th occupying a lower circle of Dante’s tropical vacation spot. But the shift in the center of gravity of both Congressional chambers that was occasioned by the mid-term elections may consign renewable energy and climate change mitigation to the attic of our Government’s conscience for a couple of years more. This is, in fine, the conclusion of 2010 Election Analysis, an appreciation prepared by Washington Council Ernst & Young for the Solar Energy Industries Association.
In Ernst & Young’s analysis, Republicans in the upcoming Congress are seen as pushing for more extraction of traditional fossil fuels, resisting regulation of carbon emissions, and replacing mandates with incentives. The change in the character of Congress is also seen as forcing a realignment of the kinds of energy tax provisions and revenue offsets considered by House and Senate. (more…)
December 15, 2010
At Cancun, Mexico, this month, 193 countries made more progress toward addressing climate change mitigation than had been widely expected of them, and less than is widely considered necessary for effective mitigation.
The summit was the follow-up to the December 2009 UN ‘COP15′ conference in Copenhagen, which was largely conducted in a spirit of discord and ended, unsurprisingly, with little in the way of binding agreements. The Cancun ‘COP16′ talks produced almost unanimous agreement on future steps and expectations, but not without reservations being expressed about the suitability of the UN process and the likely efficacy of the agreed steps. And with what we know about the new U.S. Congress’ planned inaction on any truly productive climate legislation, we wonder how close a relationship the agreement bears to reality. (more…)
December 15, 2010
Another study released this week shows that solar jobs in the U.S. are responsible for some very positive export news.
The report, U.S. Solar Energy Trade Assessment 2010, has been published by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and GTM Research. It finds that the U.S. is a major solar exporter, with net exports of solar energy products totaling $723 million in 2009.
Net exports of polysilicon for PV use came to $1.055 billion, of PV wafers $24 million, and of solar hot water products $5 million. The U.S. was, however, a net importer in 2009 of PV modules ($232 million), PV cells ($4 million), PV inverters ($121 million), and concentrated solar products ($4 million). The net effect was $723 million in the export column.
Rhone Resch, President and CEO of SEIA commented: “Solar is a global industry. The U.S. imports and exports products from every continent. But in addition to being a major net exporter of solar energy products, the industry is creating significant wealth in the United States and jobs in all 50 states. We are seeing investments in U.S. manufacturing in areas of the country hit hard by the recession – Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio and others. But we’re concerned that there is a lack of stable, long-term federal policies in the U.S. amidst an increasingly competitive global marketplace. Even modest federal policies like expanding the Section 48c manufacturing tax credit can help the U.S. solar industry remain one of the few sectors of our economy that is a net exporter, while creating tens of thousands of jobs”.
You can read a fact sheet on the SEIA/GTM report here.
You can read the full report here.
October 25, 2010
If you’re reading this, you almost certainly have an interest in solar issues and, in all likelihood, climate concerns. You’re almost sure to have heard about California ‘s Proposition 23, the ballot initiative that’s intended to kill that state’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, and that’s being massively financed by mainly out-of-state fossil fuel companies.
Here are the ugly details of this fight, which we told you about back in May.
Ready for some irony? The fossil fuel backers of Prop 23 – Texas-based Marathon Oil, Tesoro Corp. and Valero Corp., and Kansas-based Koch Industries – characterize it as a ‘pro-Californian jobs’ proposition, somehow ignoring the fact that clean energy jobs are one of the few robust and growing areas of the state’s economy. If Prop. 23 passes, it will put a severe crimp in clean energy businesses and kill jobs wholesale in the Golden State.
As if that’s not enough, Prop. 23 could have a knock-on effect in a couple of ways:
- On the last day of its last session the state legislature failed to pass SB 722, a bill that would have raised the state’s renewable energy requirement from its current target of 20% (to which utilities have already committed) to 33% by 2020. Governor Schwarzenegger has signed an executive order that raises the requirement to 33%… but uses AB 32 authority to do so. If Prop 23. passes, AB 32 will effectively be dead, and so will the 33% renewable energy requirement.
- What happens in California, given the size of our economy and our leadership in clean energy issues, affects the whole of the country. If well-heeled out-of-state oil and coal companies, whose operations in California are the most polluting on record, can use their war chests to overturn legislation that’s all-around good news for our state, they can do it anywhere. We will have given our country back to the corporations.
So all eyes are on the Golden State on election day, November 2. The No on Prop 23 campaign has been working hard to let Californian voters know the truth, and the latest poll information we have tells us that the voters are getting the message.
For all our sakes, we hope so.
October 25, 2010
The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and GTM Research have released a report that shows significant growth in the U.S. solar industry for the first half of 2010 and projects a total for the year that could, for the first time, reach 1 gigawatt installed – enough to power 200,000 homes.
The report, the inaugural U.S. Solar Market Insight report, shows that 341 megawatts of solar electric capacity were installed from January to June, with over one-third of the total being built in California, distantly followed by New Jersey, Arizona and Florida.
The report’s forecast range for 2010 runs from a baseline figure of 944 megawatts of solar electric capacity, of which 866 megawatts are PV, to a high of 1.13 gigawatts. This represents an increase of between 114% and 156% of the 2009 figure of 441 megawatts.
The solar hot water market also grew, with 2010 showing the sixth consecutive year of growth (16%). Market leaders in this segment are Hawaii, followed by Puerto Rico and California.
At the top end of the report’s longer-term outlook, market demand is projected to continue through 2015, and may even approach SEIA’s goal of 10 gigawatts per year of solar electric installations by that year – enough for 2 million homes per year. (more…)
October 25, 2010
The employment figures in the above story may represent a bright spot in the U.S.’s lackluster job market, but we are badly trailing China in this area, according to another report, the Clean Tech Top Trends 2010 report* from Clean Edge.
As reported in the UK’s Guardian, the Clean Edge report says that clean energy is spawning millions of high-paying green jobs worldwide, with China accounting for 700,000 of the three million jobs recorded in this sector in 2009. (more…)
