United States has surpassed 2 million solar PV installations, report says
Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) recently announced that the United States has surpassed more than 2 million solar PV installations.
The United States surpassed 1 million solar installations in 2016. Wood Mackenzie forecasts that the United States will have 3 million installations in 2021 and 4 million in 2023.
“According to our latest forecasts, by 2024, there will be on average, one solar installation per minute,” Michelle Davis, a senior solar analyst with Wood Mackenzie, said. “That’s up from one installation every 10 minutes in 2010.”
The news comes as part of the preliminary data release of the Q2 U.S. Solar Market Insight Report from Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables.
California represented 51 percent of the first million installations and accounted for 43 percent of the second million. Texas, Utah, Florida, Rhode Island, and Maryland were other fast-growing states and grew from approximately 50,000 installations to more than 200,000 over the last three years.
Wood Mackenzie noted that while California will continue to lead the country in installations, the remaining top 10 state markets will see faster growth. The firm expects 750,000 installations in those markets over the next five years, as compared to 500,000 over the last five years.
The United States is at least the third nation that has more than 2 million solar installations. Australia passed two million in late 2018, and Japan passed the milestone in September 2014.
