Solar photovoltaics (PV) in the U.S. added 6.2 gigawatts of new capacity in 2014 and grew 30% over 2013, GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association reported this week in their annual industry insight report.
Concentrating solar power (CSP) accounted for another 767 MW of new generation.
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“Solar accounted for 32% of the nation’s new generating capacity in 2014, beating out both wind energy and coal for the second year in a row,” Greentech reports. “Only natural gas constituted a greater share of new generating capacity.”
And in 2014, “for the first time in history, each of the three major U.S. market segments—utility, commercial and residential—installed more than one gigawatt of PV.”
“Without question, the solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC) has helped to fuel our industry’s remarkable growth,” said SEIA President and CEO Rhone Resch. “Today the U.S. solar industry has more employees than tech giants Google, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter combined,” with more than 150,000 solar jobs across the country and $66 billion invested in solar energy systems worldwide.
