The solar panel industry in the USA certainly seems to be progressing in an extremely positive way according to research by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and GTM Research based upon information contained in the US Solar Market Insight Report.
The second quarter of 2015 saw a record quarterly increase in solar capacity in the domestic market in the USA
In the second quarter of 2015, the domestic market installed 473 megawatts of additional solar capacity of a total of 1,393 megawatts. This was a record for the residential solar sector. It is also the 7th consecutive quarter that in excess of 1GW of solar capacity has been added in the USA.
Interestingly, the commercial solar sector saw installations drop by 33% in comparison to Q2 in 2014. However, it is felt that in the remaining 6 months of this year things look more promising for the non-residential sector. Utility scale solar accounted for 729 megawatts of new capacity in Q2 of this year so was a significant provider of new solar capacity.
It is pleasing to see that the USA has broken through the 20 GW of solar capacity with a total of 22.7 GW of installed capacity to the end of Q2 2015. It is being forecast that the country is on line to achieve 7.7 GW of capacity for 2015 having achieved 2.7 GW of solar capacity in the first 6 months of this year. It is believed that significant growth is going to take place in particular in the domestic market during the remainder of 2015.
It is going to be interesting to see how the UK perform in the coming months as far as solar panel installations is concerned both in the domestic and non-domestic market. It is important that interest is maintained in the solar power industry as it is a huge help in the UK and the rest of the world for that matter achieving their renewable energy and carbon emissions targets going forward.
