The United States is poised to shove aside Germany, Italy and Japan as the largest market for photovoltaic (PV) installations, according to ABI Research. The firm’s Global Photovoltaic Cells and Moduel Markets study forecasts that in 2013, the United States will have more PV installation than any other country.
According to the study, an estimated 900 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity came online during 2010 in the U.S. PV market. That number is expected to almost double in 2011. That growth is only expected to continue over the next few years. Experts forecast an increase of 5 gigawatts installed during 2013 in the United States
Increased incentives at the state and federal level will drive much of the growth, ABI said. Thirty U.S. states have already implemented renewable energy standards (RES) or renewable portfolio standards (RPS) – targets for major utilities to reach by generating or purchasing a percentage of their energy from renewable energy sources. California has an RPS target of 33 percent by 2020 and is likely to be the first state to introduce feed-in tariffs for PV power generation, ABI noted.
In addition, ABI said, renewable energy technologies are growing in the utility, industrial and commercial sectors. And government is playing a big role as well – as we’ve reported, even the U.S. military is looking into PV solutions to power supplies for troops and equipment.