March 25, 2016
Sponsored by Katherine Gensler

Demand For Utility-Scale Solar Still Dominating

While more Americans than ever are installing solar on their homes and businesses, utility-scale projects are dominating the solar revolution and generating more clean, reliable and cost-effective electricity.

Photovoltaic (PV) power plants are an economically competitive resource to meet utilities’ generation needs. The increasing cost-effectiveness of solar power has also resulted in a 70 percent decline in power purchase agreement (PPA) prices since 2009, according to a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study.

This economic progress is why the utility-scale PV market continues to serve as the bedrock of solar growth in the U.S., with 4,150 megawatts (MW) of installations in 2015— 57 percent of capacity installed. SolarReserve’s Crescent Dunes power tower, a concentrating solar power technology, added another 110 MW to the tally.

SEIA forecasts that nearly 12 gigawatts (GW) of new utility-scale PV installations will come on-line in 2016, almost triple what was installed in 2015. The utility-scale solar pipeline is also flush: 19.8 GW of utility-scale solar projects are contracted-for or under construction.

 


 

To ensure market growth, SEIA will continue to defend and seek to expand solar markets, promoting policies that enable installation of solar at both utility- and rooftop-scale.
 
Preserving and expanding state renewable portfolio standards, advocating for community solar programs and ensuring solar plays an important role under the Clean Power Plan are policies that SEIA is prioritizing.
 
SEIA’s Utility-Scale Solar Power Division will be meeting in Washington, D.C., on April 27 to discuss federal and state policy priorities, grid reliability, permitting and other policy developments important to utility-scale solar markets.
 
Utility-scale solar brings in the lion’s share of capacity, and the market will continue to be a major part of the ongoing proliferation of solar energy in America.
 

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