US New Solar PV Installations Reach Record 4.2 GW

January 9th, 2014 by Joshua S Hill

NPD Solarbuzz have released their first news of the new year, unexpectedly looking back at the year just gone. According to the NPD analysts, the new solar photovoltaic (PV) installations in the United States throughout 2013 reached a record 4.2 GW.

This figure is a 15% growth on 2012 figures, and places the country as the leading solar market outside of the Asia-Pacific region.

The news comes courtesy of the company’s latest North America PV Markets Quarterly report, which not only looked back at the year in total, but is the first report to look back at last quarter of 2013.

Fourth quarter installations for 2013 also reached a new record, hitting 1.4 GW.

“Each year, the final quarter in the U.S. results in a new quarterly record for solar PV installed,” saidMichael Barker, senior analyst at NPD Solarbuzz. “The solar PV industry in the U.S. is, on average, now installing more than one gigawatt of solar PV each quarter.”

The news comes as no real surprise given the way things had been looking throughout much of 2013 for the US solar industry. Large-scale projects had dominated the scene all through the year, ending up accounting for over 80% of new solar capacity deployed for the yer.

Happily, the small-scale solar segment — comprising primarily of residential and small non-residential rooftop installations — accounted for approximately 700 MW in 2013, an increase of 10% compared to the previous year’s tally.

And, completely unsurprisingly, California lead the way for US states in terms of total installed solar PV, but saw hot contention from North Carolina which rocketed up 3 spots thanks to strong utility-scale activity. Texas jumped four spots overall to come in 5th, while New Mexico and New York were new entrants to the top ten, displacing Maryland and Colorado.

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