http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2010/12/2011-solar-outlook2011 Solar Outlook
By Lindsay Morris, Associate Editor, Power Engineering
December 27, 2010
The U.S. solar electric market grew by over 100 percent in 2010, now exceeding 1 GW of generating capacity.
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In 2011, the solar growth trend is expected to continue. In the U.S., solar power capacity is predicted to at least double in 2011, said Julia Hamm, CEO of SEPA. This growth will be caused in part by falling prices for everything from manufacturing costs to panel prices. Yet the main driver for U.S. solar development in the next year will not be price, but policy.
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According to EuPD Research, extending the TGP by two years would add nearly 65,000 new solar and related jobs to the workforce by 2015 and more than 5,000 MW of solar energy by 2016. Resch said many of the jobs that would be added are in the states that have been hardest hit by the economic downtown: Ohio, Illinois and Pennsylvania.
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While still at very small penetrations, solar is making incredible progress. Ten years ago, global solar PV installations were at 170 MW. This year, due to solid policy support and rapid price declines, they were at 17,000 MW. And in 2010, the U.S. solar PV industry finally broke the 1 GW mark in installations. The Solar Energy Industries Association projects that the U.S. will be installing more than 20 GW of capacity each year beyond 2020.
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