Here's an incredible chart that shows how rapidly solar power is being installed in America.

In 2006, just 7 years ago, there was one new installation of a solar unit every 80 minutes.

Today? There's one installation every four minutes.

The U.S. is on pace to see one new solar installation every 83 seconds by 2016, renewable energy research group Greentech Media says.

Perhaps even more amazing: two-thirds of all "distributed," or localized, solar in the U.S. has been installed in the past 2 1/2 years.

Greentech VP Shayle Kann told us that by 2016, New Jersey will have surged to the No. 2 solar producer in the country, leapfrogging Arizona.

Meanwhile, New York will surge from 10th to 5th, thanks to its renewable portfolio standard that dictates 29% of all the state's energy needs must be renewably sourced by 2015.