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U.S. solar installations hit a record high in 2020, as the favorable economy, supportive policies and strong demand in the second half of the year offset the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
The facility grew 43 percent year-over-year during 2020, reaching a record 19.2 gigawatts of new capacity, according to a report released Tuesday by the Solar and Wood Mackenize Industries Association.
In the fourth quarter alone, the United States added just over 8 gigawatts of capacity, a new quarterly record. To put the number in context, 7.5 gigawatts were added throughout 2015. One gigawatt is enough to power approximately 190,000 homes. The United States currently has 97.2 GW of total solar capacity installed, enough to power approximately 17.7 million homes.
California, Texas and Florida were the top three states for annual solar additions for the second year in a row. Virginia and North Carolina completed the top five.
Following the slowdown in the second quarter, as pandemic ground operations stopped, the residential lot recorded a record sales pipeline during the second half of the year, driven by customers interested in home improvements. The report’s authors believe that this momentum in the middle of last year is likely to continue until 2021.
With regard to solar power, annual capacity additions increased by 65% over the previous year.
“The recent two-year extension of the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) will drive greater solar adoption by 2025,” said Michelle Davis, a senior analyst at Wood Mackenzie, referring to the tax credits extended in December as part of the ‘relief of coronavirus and government spending package.
According to the report, the two-year extension of credit to its current level will lead to a 17% increase in solar deployment forecasts between 2021 and 2025.
In the United States, solar power accounted for 43% of all new electricity generation capacity added in 2020, its largest share of new generation capacity. In many places, solar is now the newest form of new energy.
“Residential solar energy sales continue to exceed expectations as loan providers launch attractive products, interest in home improvement rises and customers suffering power outages due to extreme weather events and seeking energy resilience” , the report states.
For the first time, the SEIA and Wood Mackenzie report also examined growth forecasts for 2030, projecting that the U.S. solar market will quadruple in size from current levels by the end of the decade.
Growth is expected to be shared in the markets as customers, utilities, states and companies drive network decarbonisation. President Joe Biden called for an emissions-free energy sector in 2035 as part of his $ 2 trillion infrastructure and climate package introduced last July.
“A compelling economy for distributed and utility-scale solar energy coupled with the decarbonisation commitments of numerous stakeholders will result in an installation rate of more than 50 GWdc by the end of the decade,” he said. add Davis by Wood Mackenzie.