Solar Cells are Getting Popular in the U.S.

The development of solar industry in the U.S. has reached new level. Today we can watch market development of solar systems and its shift towards private houses owners and clients. More and more solar panels appear on the roofs of houses in the U.S.

According to the last data from the research group studying the market of solar panels, it was a new record set comparing to the results of the previous quarter. Moreover, the amount of houses with solar systems for the beginning of this year was also a record at that time.

Two Possible Types of Solar Energy Use

In general, overwhelming majority of solar panels has always been used in solar farms situated in remote regions in order to make electricity to provide necessary utilities to local homes. Utility companies distribute electricity provided by solar systems to clients through a centralized system of power supply.

Even so far the percent of solar panels installed to provide utilities through solar farms is significantly higher in comparison with the panels installed in homes. During the previous quarter solar panels of total 730 megawatts worth were installed in such farms to provide utilities.

There are only solar panels of 474 megawatts worth installed on house roofs for consumers. To make these numbers more understandable – 1 000 megawatts can be compared by the power to a plant of natural gas or a big coal.

The Growing Popularity

However, the amount of private clients in the U.S. who choose to install solar panels on their roofs, has begun growing faster, and this tendency is widespread across almost all possible states. It’s about 70 percent increase of the amount of houses with solar systems on their roofs just during the recent quarter. The private sector of solar market has already become popular in ten states in comparison with four states in 2013.

The tendency of solar power usage by private consumers is quite interesting because having solar panels on their roofs, people can take control over independent electricity generation. The process of decentralization of energy generation is becoming more popular unlike the usage of centralized energy supply by the traditional model. According to this model, utility companies still provide the main facilities for the grid with not owning of generation.

However, the growing of solar system usage is also presented in utility sector. Now the biggest farms are on the stage of changing their energy systems for solar ones.

Governmental Support

To support the quick development of such environment-friendly huge source of energy, the U.S. government has made a special subsidy, named the federal investment tax credit, offering owners of solar farms a 30 percent tax credit. From the 2017 this credit can be decreased to a 10 percent tax credit.

The result of such growth is a race of power companies in building solar farms providing utilities. Such tendency can lead to oversaturated market in the short perspective, but to under-inflated one in a long term. Having so wide specter of solar companies, consumers can really have problems to choose an appropriate one. That is why Solar Panels Company presents its assistance in choosing the right company to create independent solar system for every consumer. Now is the best time for making such a change to new type of energy, due to provided benefits and further usage of independent source of energy for any needs.

The Tendency of Development

The other recent research of the U.S. solar industry found that there is a plan to build solar farms of total 32 gigawatts that differ in size from twenty to hundred megawatts, till the end of 2016.

Taking into consideration a possibility of election of president who is solar-friendly (like, Hillary Clinton who promotes solar energy), the federal tax credit might be extended. But for the time being the industry of solar energy is still developing in an atmosphere of uncertainty.

Despite any difficulties and possible changes the solar industry is now on the impressive stage of development having a great growth in both private solar market and utility solar farms. In total there are 4.7 million U.S. houses powered by solar panels of 21 gigawatts. At this point it is 40 percent of new electricity-generating capacity provided by solar energy.