State of the Solar Industry in 2021

Credible Solar l 6 MINUTE READ

State of the Solar Industry in 2021 

One of the biggest problems we face as a nation: how do we sustain the power grids we already have, much less build new ones? The future is right now, and it’s arriving in small increments. Distributed generation (DG) is starting to make a real difference in the way we generate electricity as a society. Utility companies can’t respond quickly to outages and the energy loss over distance transmission is high. Interconnecting hundreds of thousands of solar homes and businesses decentralizes our energy grid making it more reliable. The winter storm that hit the south and Texas in 2021 has shifted many Americans mindset on renewable energy and distributed generation with solar panels.

The United States solar industry is growing at a fast pace!

Solar power is leading the energy industry in growth for % share of US electricity generation.

Solar power has become more and more popular as our energy demands increase. The solar energy industry is unique because it not only generates electricity, but decentralizes our utility grid making it more reliable.

Solar power electricity generation is taking market share from coal power, which has dropped over 50% in the last decade.

The United States had 317.6 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired electric generation capacity in 2011. About 88.7 GW of that capacity has been retired since then.

Coal Power % Share of Electricity Generation in US Chart.

Wind capacity in the United States has increased significantly over the past decade, from 40.1 gigawatts (GW) in January 2011 to 118.3 GW at the end of 2020. In both 2019 and 2020, project developers in the United States installed more wind power capacity than any other generating technology.

Coal Power Electricity Generation Capacity in US Chart.

Federal subsidies such as the federal solar tax credit, MACRS accelerated depreciation for businesses, and net metering programs have played a vital role in the growth of the clean energy sector. As some of these programs phase out, like the federal solar tax credit set to phase out in 2024, 

Homeowners opt into Net Metering to save money on electricity without needing battery backup.

As reported in the U.S. Solar Market Insight Report for 2013 Q4, "the dramatic cost declines in photovoltaic (PV) hardware, as well as other components such as balance of system (BOS) and soft costs, have propelled solar past other forms of new generation projects and made it competitive with utility-scale wind power." Solar power is leading the energy industry in growth in the United States despite low natural gas prices that are already driving coal out of business. Although natural gas prices may rise again in the future, solar is a long term investment paying off with decreased energy costs from affordable clean energy.

Solar is projected to continue to grow exponentially!

Conclusion

All things considered: political shifts towards green energy, the price of solar panels becoming cheaper, the cost of electricity increasing nationwide, the federal solar tax credit- we expect the solar industry is set to boom over the next decade. Now is the perfect time to start a career in solar energy.