In first quarter 2011 (Q1 2011) 252 megawatts (MW) of grid connected photovoltaics were installed, the report by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and GTM Research has found, which represents a 66 percent increase over Q1 2010.
The "U.S. Solar Market Insight TM" report, released late last week as the Intersolar North America convection closed, found that the growth in capacity was evident across all three photovoltaic market sectors: residential, commercial and utility. Of these, commercial installations showed the strongest growth.
"On the whole, the U.S. is currently the PV industry's most attractive and stable growth market," said Shayle Kann from GTM Research. "The U.S [is] positioned to nearly double its global market share in 2011," Kann continued in a statement delivering the reports findings.
Only last week, a report by the Brookings Institute found that the "green sector" is also proving to be a major employer in the U.S., with the total number of "green collar" jobs outnumbering those in oil and gas.
The U.S. photovoltaic market remains concentrated in a few key states, this latest GTM Research report has also found, with this trend deepening. While 82 percent of total installations occurred in just seven states in Q1 2010, one year later that figure had growth to 88 percent.
U.S. module production was also observed to have increased by 31 percent since Q1 2010 in the report. "With analysts predicting the U.S. to become the world's largest solar market within the next few years, manufacturers are increasingly looking to the U.S. to site their facilities," said Tom Kimbis from SEIA. "They are finding significant value in manufacturing close to their expected source of demand."
As evidence of this trend, late last week China Sunergy announced the opening of its U.S. office in San Francisco and the appointment of a U.S. management team. The vertically integrated Chinese photovoltaic manufacturer also indicated that it would be exploring opportunities to open manufacturing facilities there also.
Concentrating solar power (CSP) market was also analysed in the report however no CSP projects were completed in Q1 2011. There are presently 1.1 gigawatts (GW) of CSP projects are currently under construction with a number having receivied Department of Energy loan guarantees.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.