Solar - March 17, 2021
U.S. solar industry saw 43% growth in installations in 2020
The U.S. solar industry installed a record 19.2 GW of capacity in 2020, representing a 43% increase from the year before.
That’s according to a new report released by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie. The U.S. Solar Market Insight 2020 Year-in-Review report found that solar was the most-installed renewable energy source for the second year in a row, representing 43% of new capacity.
“After a slowdown in Q2 due to the pandemic, the solar industry innovated and came roaring back to continue our trajectory as America’s leading source of new energy,” Abigail Ross Hopper, SEIA president and CEO, said in a statement. “The forecast shows that by 2030, the equivalent of one in eight American homes will have solar, but we still have a long way to go if we want to reach our goals in the Solar+ Decade. This report makes it clear that smart policies work. The action we take now will determine the pace of our growth and whether we use solar to fuel our economy and meet this climate moment.”
Wood Mackenzie predicts that the U.S. solar industry will install a cumulative 324 GW of new capacity over the next 10 years, quadrupling the total solar operating fleet. The U.S. installed 8 GW of new solar capacity in the fourth quarter of 2020, which represents the largest quarter in U.S. solar history.
The top states for solar capacity additions in 2020 were California, Texas, Florida, and Virginia. Twenty-seven states installed over 100 MW of new solar respectively, which is a new record as well. There was 14 GW of utility-scale solar installed in 2020, 30.6 GW of new utility solar PPAs announced in 2020, and an 11% increase in residential deployment.
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