It’s A Glorious Day/Month For Sunshine!
Dear Friends, Visitors/Viewers/Readers,
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Glorious! I got this few days ago….for the first time ever, solar accounted for 100% of all new utility electricity capacity added to the grid in the USA in the month of March, 2013.
It’s A Glorious Day/Month For Sunshine!
This milestone was revealed by the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s March Energy Infrastructure Update, which focuses exclusively on larger facilities and does not include energy generated by net-metered installations. At the bottom of page 3 of 5 of this report, one finds that 44 MW of PV capacity was installed during March, 2013, following the startup of seven new projects located in California, Nevada, New Jersey, Hawaii, Arizona, and North Carolina. The report also indicates that solar had a strong presence in the first quarter of this year with 537 MW of PV added to the grid in the US during the three-month period.
“This speaks to the extraordinary strides we have made in the past several years to bring down costs and ramp up deployment,” said Rhone Resch, president and CEO of the SEIA (Solar Energy Industries Association). “Since 2008, the amount of solar powering U.S. homes, businesses and military bases has grown by more than 600 percent—from 1,100 megawatts to more than 7,700 megawatts today. As FERC’s report suggests, and many analysts predict, solar will grow to be our nation’s largest new source of energy over the next four years.”
FERC’s report supports other findings which show solar power to be one of the fastest growing energy sources in the U.S., powering homes, businesses and utility grids across the nation. The Solar Market Insight annual edition shows the U.S. installed 3,313 megawatts (MW) of solar photovoltaics (PV) in 2012, a record for the industry.
Some of this growth is attributed to the fact that the cost of a solar system has dropped by nearly 40 percent over the past two years, making solar more affordable than ever for utilities and consumers.
“In 2012, the U.S. brought more new solar capacity online than in the three prior years combined,” Resch added. “These new numbers from FERC support our forecast that solar will continue a pattern of growth in 2013, adding 5.2 GW of solar electric capacity. This sustained growth is enabling the solar industry to create thousands of good jobs and to provide clean, affordable energy for more families, businesses, utilities, and the military than ever before.”
Today, America’s solar industry employs 119,000 workers throughout the country. That’s a 13.2 percent growth over 2011’s jobs numbers, making solar one of the fastest-growing job sectors in the nation.
More Resources:
– FERC’s March 2013 Energy Infrastructure Update: www.ferc.gov/legal/staff-reports/2013/mar-energy-infrastructure.pdf
– 2013 SEIA Policy Priorities: http://www.seia.org/research-resources/2013-policy-priorities-federal-state
– U.S. Solar Market Insight: 2012 Year-in-Review: http://www.seia.org/research-resources/us-solar-market-insight
~have a bright and sunny day~
Gathered and posted by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker
Any of your comments or suggestions are welcomed at sunisthefuture@gmail.com
Homepage: http://www.sunisthefuture.net
Tags: FERC, grid, Infrastructure, PV, Rhone Resch, SEIA, solar, solar market insight, Sun, Sun Is The Future, sunisthefuture, sunisthefuture.net, susan sun nunamaker, update, US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission