The U.S. Solar Energy Industries Association celebrated yesterday’s 45th annual Earth Day, with SEIA president Rhone Resch forecasting the USA’s current 20 gigawatts of solar capacity will double by 2016.
According to the industry group, all solar market sectors – residential, non-residential and utility scale – will grow by 25-to-50 per cent in the next two years.
“On April 22, 1970, when the very first Earth Day was held, there was virtually no solar energy powering the grid in the United States,” said Resch. “How times have changed. Today, there are 20GW of installed solar capacity in the U.S. – enough to power more than 4 million American homes – and we’re going to double both of those numbers by the end of next year.”
Figures released in an earlier joint SEIA/GTM Research report show by the end 2016, solar power systems in the U.S. will offset 45 million metric tons of carbon emissions, the equivalent of removing nearly 10 million cars off U.S. roads and highways, or shutting down 12 coal-fired plants.
“That’s a pretty impressive ‘high five’ for our environment,” Resch said.
A relatively stable and positive policy environment encouraging support for solar power over the duration of the Obama administration has strengthened the sector. Solar investment has benefited from schemes such as the Federal 30 per cent Investment Tax Credit for solar projects, and it’s expected that U.S. 16 states will install 100 megawatts (MW) of solar capacity by the end of next year compared to just two in 2010.
In 2016, America will surpass one million residential solar power system installations and California alone will install more solar panels than the entire country did during 2014.
“Today, the U.S. solar industry employs 174,000 Americans nationwide – more than tech giants Apple, Google, Facebook and Twitter combined – and pumps nearly $18 billion a year into our economy,” Resch added.
“For our industry, this truly is an exciting and promising time to be celebrating Earth Day. As the old saying goes, ‘actions speak louder than words,’ and every new solar system that comes online today represents a win for the future of our planet.”
In 1970, Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, organised a national day of action in which 20 million Americans demonstrated against environmental degradation. The protests galvanised both sides of politics and lead to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts.
Today, Earth Day has become an international movement for the environment with over 5000 community organisations and a billion people participating in campaigning for change.
