In February 2016, the US will pass a major milestone: 1 million homes will have solar, according to EnergySage.
And an amazing 6 million Americans are actively shopping for solar systems right now, EnergySage CEO Vikram Aggarwal told Tech Insider. Over 300,000 of them will decide to install solar this year, he predicts.
It’s even more impressive when you consider that in 2006, there were only about 30,000 homes with solar. Today, the average solar system is just under 8 kilowatts, much bigger than it used to be.
"Based on the number of people who are interested in solar, if we can make solar shopping as easy and as transparent as shopping for hotels or cars, I have no doubt that we will soon be doing 5, 10 times the volume we are doing today," Aggarwal told Tech Insider.
The Department of Energy gave EnergySage a $500,000 grant under the SunShot initiative to develop and implement exactly that – a one-stop-shop web-based solar PV comparison-shopping platform – which is now operating.
US Top Destination for Solar Manufacturers
All this activity (plus large-scale solar) has resulted in expansion of the US manufacturing base to make solar panels. The US ranks #5 in the world for attracting solar manufacturers, according to a GTM Research report, Global PV Manufacturing Attractiveness Index 2015.
Over the past 7 years, the world has come full cycle – from an oversupply of solar panels that crushed the industry to once more not having enough supply to meet demand. In the first nine months of 2015, 6.6 gigawatts of new module manufacturing capacity were contracted for – all of it in countries other than China, says GTM.
Still, China remains the leader because of a combination of domestic demand, manufacturing support, and cost competiveness, says GTM. It is followed by Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, and the US.
Read our article, Another Big Solar Factory For NY State, Cuts the Cost of Solar.
Read EnergySage’s Solar Marketplace Intel Report:
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