The Solyndra bankruptcy, the solar trade complaint filed against China and the pending expiration of a wildly popular grant program continue to provided fodder for an increasingly politicized discussion.
Perhaps lost in all of this is that a whole lot of people are quietly putting up a whole lot of solar. According to new data presented Wednesday by GTM Research, the third quarter of 2011 was easily the best ever for American installers.
There were 449 megawatts (MW) of grid-connected PV installed in the third quarter alone, putting the cumulative yearly total above 1 gigawatt (GW) for the first time. And that’s with the fourth quarter, traditionally the quarter with the most activity, yet to come. By the time 2011 is over, there could be 1.7 GW of new PV in the U.S. Perhaps most striking was that the third-quarter numbers were 140 percent higher than the third quarter figures from 2010.
The residential market grew by a healthy 21 percent over the third quarter of 2010. The utility sector, meanwhile jumped 325 percent year-over-year. The commercial sector, meanwhile fell 24 percent during the quarter.
The sharp growth in utility installations included 23 projects totalling 200 MW that were connected during the third quarter. (No concentrating solar power and concentrating photovoltaics projects came online during the quarter.) More than 500 MW of utility PV is currently under construction in the U.S., with expected completion dates later this year and into 2012.
The rise in the residential market comes after two down quarters. California saw its residential installations grow from 23 MW in the second quarter to 33 MW in the third quarter.
The commercial market’s 24 percent drop is attributed to simultaneous difficulties in the four largest markets — California, Arizona, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. A rush to “safe harbor” projects so that they can qualify for the 1603 grant will likely lead to a surge over the first half of the year. However, New Jersey and Pennsylvania show little prospect for recovery in 2012.
– from renewableenergyworld.com