Industrial, Solar, Sourcing Renewables - September 10, 2024
Solar Panel Manufacturing Capacity Rises Fourfold
The manufacturing of solar module capacity has reached over 31 gigawatts (GW) in the U.S. This rise is almost a four-fold increase since the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) became law in 2022.
Federal clean energy policies have produced an increase in manufacturing and deployment in the solar industry, resulting in 9.4 GW of new electric generation capacity installed during the second quarter of 2024, according to the U.S. Solar Market Insight Q3 2024 report released by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie.
During the two past years since the IRA was approved, the solar industry increased capacity to the grid by 75 GW, which represents over 36% of all solar capacity built in U.S. history.
“The solar and storage industry is turning federal clean energy policies into action by rapidly creating jobs and powering economic growth in all 50 states, particularly in battleground states like Arizona, Nevada and Georgia,” said SEIA president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper in a statement. “We are now manufacturing historic amounts of solar energy in America, and soon, we will have enough domestic module production to supply nearly all U.S. demand for years to come.”
Texas leads the nation in solar capacity installed during the first half of 2024 with 5.5 GW. The other states in the top 10 in 2024 are Florida, Nevada, Ohio and Arizona.
Annual solar installations are estimated to increase at 4% on average over the next several years, the report added. By 2029, total U.S. solar capacity is expected to double to 440 GW.
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