U.S. Concentrated Solar Power Market described as ” Set to Explode”

A new report from Market research takes a hard look at the potential for solar energy in the U.S.

After its best year ever in 2008, the world solar market struggled to survive a tumultuous 2009. What looked like a yawning drop for the solar photovoltaic (PV) market in the first half of the year turned into a solid gain in total amount of systems installed on the strength of strong German sales in the fourth quarter. But despite annual worldwide PV installations rising from 5.8 GW in 2008 to 6.6 GW in 2009, the PV market value dropped by 15.8% to $17.0 billion due to crashing PV cell and module prices, SBI Energy reports.

The U.S. fared better than most countries, with the PV market up an estimated 6.0% in 2009 to $3.5 billion and PV installations rising to 469 MW. An extension of the solar tax credit and new recovery act funding helped to keep the U.S. PV market on a continuing upward trend. The U.S. represented only 1% of a world solar thermal collector market dominated by China in 2009, shipping 1.0 GW of collectors worth $79.6 million, according to the study.

Worldwide, the U.S. still has the greatest potential to increase its position in the solar market. SBI Energy foresees 900 MW of PV installations in 2010, rising to 7,600 MW of PV installations in 2014 building on renewed interest in solar from utilities and the extension of the solar tax credit. While the Solar thermal market will show only moderate growth in the U.S., the PV market segment will continue to shine in the U.S. and the concentrated solar power (CSP) market is set to explode. SBI Energy estimates the U.S. solar panel market will reach $34.5 billion in 2014.

“U.S. Solar Energy Market World Data, 2nd Edition” analyzes the manufacturing and sales of the U.S. solar photovoltaic and solar thermal markets within the context of other key solar countries such as the Germany, Spain, Japan and China.

For more information, visit:

http://www.marketresearch.com/product/display.asp?productid=2385474

Short URL: http://www.solarthermalmagazine.com/?p=2262

Posted by Tracey A. Smith on Jun 24 2010. Filed under Headline, Solar Thermal Industry News, Studies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry