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The
sector will install 324 gigawatt (GW) of capacity over the next
decade, more than three times the nearly 100 GW installed by
2020, the U.S. Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) said,
citing a report issued jointly with Wood Mackenzie.
The 324 GW of solar energy would produce enough electricity to
power about 60 million homes, or around 40% of homes in the
country today.
The outlook reflects both robust demand from utilities and
corporations seeking to meet greenhouse gas reduction goals and
declining costs for the technology that has buttressed the
market for home solar installations.
Just 3% of U.S. electricity is generated from the sun, but SEIA
hopes that will rise to 20% over the next decade.
Installations rose 43% last year to 19.2 GW, an annual record
for the industry. Utility-scale projects, which account for most
of the market, experienced only minor disruptions due to
coronavirus pandemic-related shutdowns. Residential
installations took a large hit in the second quarter due to the
pandemic, but ended the year up 11% at a record 3.1 GW.
Late last year, Congress extended a 26% tax credit that helps
reduce the cost of solar facilities as part of a package to
provide coronavirus aid and fund the U.S. government.
But SEIA said further tax incentives, the lifting of tariffs on
overseas-made panels, and workforce training was necessary for
the United States to cut enough greenhouse gas output to prevent
the worst effects of climate change.
"We need policy in all of those areas so that we can not just
grow on the path that we're on, but accelerate that growth,"
SEIA President Abigail Ross Hopper said in an interview.
(Reporting by Nichola Groom; editing by Richard Pullin)
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