On September 9, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie jointly released the "U.S. Solar Market Insights 2024 Third Quarter Report".
The report pointed out that the United States added 9.4GW of solar installed capacity in the second quarter of 2024. The U.S. clean energy policy is accelerating the growth of solar manufacturing and installations, but the U.S. solar industry still faces many challenges.
The report points out that within two years of the IRA, the U.S. solar industry has added 75GW of solar capacity, contributing more than 36% of all solar capacity installed in U.S. history. Nearly 1.5 million American households have installed solar since the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was enacted.
In addition, in terms of solar module production capacity, as of the end of the second quarter, the United States' solar module manufacturing capacity has exceeded 31GW, an increase of nearly four times since the enactment of the IRA.
Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of SEIA, said that the rapid growth of the U.S. solar and energy storage industries, stimulated by the rapid implementation of clean energy policies, has brought a large number of jobs to all 50 states and promoted rapid economic growth.
"We have created the most solar module production capacity in U.S. history, and soon we will have enough PV module production to meet almost all demand for the next few years," said Abigail Ross Hopper.
Among them, Texas continues to maintain its dominance in the solar market, leading the country with 5.5 GW of solar installed capacity in the first half of 2024. In addition, the states that will be closely watched in the US election in November are all large solar manufacturing states, including Texas, Florida, Nevada, Ohio and Arizona, and their solar manufacturing capacity ranks among the top 10 in the country.
Michelle Davis, global solar director at Wood Mackenzie and lead author of the report, said: "The U.S. solar industry performed well in the second quarter, mainly due to the growth of large-scale photovoltaic projects. But the future growth of large projects is being limited by challenges in the power industry - grid pressure, electrical equipment shortages and labor scarcity. In addition, the U.S. election has also brought uncertainty to the solar industry, and the U.S. solar industry still has a lot of things to do."
In addition, the report pointed out that in the second quarter of 2024, the U.S. residential solar market continued to shrink due to policy changes and high interest rates in California. The industry added only 1.1GW in the second quarter, the lowest in a single quarter in the past three years. However, the report predicts that the residential solar market will grow again in 2025, and it is expected to set annual records from 2026 to 2029.
Due to the above factors, the annual installation of solar energy in the United States will increase by an average of 4% in the next few years. By 2029, the total solar energy capacity in the United States is expected to double to 440GW.
Source：solarzoom