The U.S. solar industry completed a new installation every 2.5 minutes in 2014, up from 4.0 minutes in 2013, according to an update from GTM Research.
“The growth was led by the residential sector, where 200,000 systems were affixed to rooftops around the country,” Greentech reports. “That’s up from 50,000 residential systems in 2011.”
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As recently as 2001, the industry was completing an installation every 578 minutes.
In his January, 2014 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama cited GTM data when he noted that “it’s not just oil and natural gas production that’s booming; we’re becoming a global leader in solar, too. Every four minutes, another American home or business goes solar; every panel [is] pounded into place by a worker whose job can’t be outsourced.”
Lacey notes: “By the time President Obama mentioned the number, it had already fallen to a system being installed every three and a half minutes.”
