According to a new report issued today by the San Francisco based consultancy, Solarbuzz Inc, 37 Megawatts of grid connected solar photovoltaics were installed in the United States during last year, up from a national grid connect market of only 2 Megawatts in 1998.
"The grid connect market now accounts for 56% of the total US solar photovoltaic market installations", says Craig Stevens, CEO of Solarbuzz Inc., "US customers' appetite for PV systems is keeping pace with customers in Germany and Japan".
California leads the national story through the unprecedented success of its programs to stimulate both residential and commercial consumer demand, now accounting for over 80% of the total US market. New Jersey is now starting to see the benefits of its program as the market responds to the incentives it put in place last year.
Based on its proprietary national database of installations that proceeded in 2003, the Solarbuzz report sets out in detail the type of PV systems that were installed, the characteristics of customers that purchased, the prices, the product suppliers and main installers. The report reveals that the news is not all good though. The very success of the incentive programs defined by strong consumer demand and declining prices, has depleted many funding budgets. Against a national annual requirement of $130-150M to sustain the current market size, the report identifies funding for 2005 of $90M, leaving a structural shortfall of $50M.
While PV installations from funding sources already identified and reserved will proceed this year, new business opportunities will be hampered immediately, if these issues are not successfully resolved. Possible short term changes to program terms are being considered as early as this week, the structural issues will take longer.
The new US Grid Connect Market report provides a clear roadmap for companies targeting commercial success in this regional market segment as it combines a detailed analysis of 2003 market performance, status of PV funding programs, a review of PV system and Inverters in the market, and also identification of alternative US marketing models, their pros and cons and success factors.
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