Solar installers built 1,855 megawatts of photovoltaic projects in 2011 for a total of $8.4 billion, up from 887 MW in 2010, according to a report released by GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). A record level of fourth quarter installations totaling 776 MW easily beat the peak of 473 MW recorded in the third quarter of the year. The 2011 figures rank the United States as the fourth largest solar market in the world behind Germany, Italy and China. The U.S. share of the global market was only about 7 percent last year, he said, but that share should double by 2016 as U.S. demand continues to grow and European demand starts to decline.
The large, utility-scale projects, which produce power for the wholesale electricity market, totaled 758 MW of the 2011 total. That is about the size of one natural gas-fired power plant.
Another 3,000 MW of utility-scale plants are currently under construction in the United States, and 6,000 MW is at an earlier stage of development, the report said.
Among those projects under construction are two 550-MW projects being built by First Solar and a 250-MW plant being built by SunPower Corp SPRW.O, which are among the largest in the world.
Installations on homes rose 11 percent in 2011 to 297 MW, while panels installed at non-residential sites rose 28 percent to 800 MW.
The average installed cost for solar declined by 20 percent last year to $4.08 per watt, largely because of reductions in costs for the largest plants, which saw costs drop to $3.20 per watt in the fourth quarter.
– source reuters.com