US Solar Capacity Reached 17.5GW In Q3

USA solar capacity Q3

The USA installed 1,354 megawatts of solar PV in Q3 2014, up 41 percent on the same period last year.

According to the quarterly SEIA/GTM Research U.S. Solar Market Insight report, Q3 was the second biggest quarter for solar installations in the history of the US solar sector.

“Every three minutes of every single day, the U.S. solar industry is flipping the switch on another completed solar project, benefiting both our economy and the environment,” said Rhone Resch, SEIA president and CEO.

SEIA estimates solar installations will reach 6.5 GW  this year, up 36% over 2013 and more than triple the market size of just three years ago.

USA solar installations
The nation’s home solar sector is booming.  More than 300 MW of residential PV was activated during Q3 and over half of that was brought online on-line without any state incentive. Q3 installation of residential solar power systems were up  13% over Q2 2014 and up 58% over Q3 2013.

Third-party-owned (TPO) residential PV systems continue to drive anywhere from 67% (New York) to 92% (New Jersey) of residential installations in state markets where solar leasing and PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) options are available.

The model used for the report indicates weighted national residential system costs at USD $3.60/Wdc in Q3, representing a 3.8% decrease quarter-over-quarter.

“By the end of this year there will be more than 600,000 homes outfitted with solar, and we see no signs of a slowdown next year,” said Shayle Kann, Senior Vice President at GTM Research. “By 2017, we expect the residential sector to be the largest in the U.S. solar market.”

The US utility-scale market is also thriving; with 825 MW installed in Q3 2014, up from 540 MW in Q3 last year.

At the end  of Q3, 578,000 individual solar installations were operating in the USA. 36% of all new electric generating capacity in the U.S. to the end of September 2014 came from solar.

Solar PV capacity had reached 16.1 gigawatts (GW) by the close of the third quarter, with another 1.4 GW of concentrating solar power (CSP) capacity.

More from the Solar Market Insight Report 2014 Q3 can be viewed here.

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