MYTH:
SOLAR FACT:
MYTH:
SOLAR FACT:
· The U.S. now has over 5,700 MW of installed solar electric capacity, enough to power more than 940,000 average American households.
· The utility scale segment drove the U.S. market in Q2, with 477 MW of installed solar electric capacity.
Eight states had 10 MW or more of utility-scale installations.
· The residential PV market continued to show steady, incremental growth. There was 98 MW of residential installations in the second quarter of 2012, up 42 percent over Q2 2011 installations.
Costs Reductions Continue To Make Solar More Affordable
· The average cost of a completed PV system dropped by 33 percent in the second quarter of 2012 compared to the second quarter of 2011.
· Since the beginning of 2010, the average cost of a PV system has dropped by more than 46 percent.
· The average price of a solar panel has declined by 51% since Q1 2011.
· While these price drops are beneficial for the end user, the sharp fall in prices, driven in part by a global oversupply, has put a serious strain on solar manufacturers worldwide.
www.seia.org/policy/solar-technology/photovoltaic-solar-electric
Solar PV technologies have declined in price every year since they were introduced onto the market, driven by improved research and development, and most of all by steady increases in sales volume. (In 1954, approximately one watt of PV generating devices was manufactured. In 2004, approximately one billion watts were manufactured worldwide.) Every solar panel purchased makes the next one cheaper, in stark contrast to nonrenewable sources, which become scarcer and more expensive with every ton that is burned. PV has recently exploded into a number of industrial markets, where it is quite simply the lowest -cost source of power available. These include highway warning signs, rural irrigation applications and remote electrical and communications devices. Similarly, for any application more than about half a mile away from the electrical grid, a solar system will likely prove less expensive than will power line construction.
The most rapidly-growing segment of the solar industry is for “grid connected” systems – rooftop solar panels on homes or businesses that remain connected to the conventional electrical grid. In some cases, as where electricity is more expensive during the middle of the day, or when solar is used to support power-critical applications (e.g. banking, microchip manufacturing), the economics are very compelling without further incentives. In other places, comparatively modest state or federal incentives can make solar a great investment for home or business owners that better with every year.
MYTH:
SOLAR FACT:
MYTH:
SOLAR FACT:
generated electricity, each kilowatt of PV electricity annually offsets up to:
· 16 kilograms of nitrogen oxides
· 9 kilograms of sulfur oxides
· 2,300 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2)
If the industry grows by the 25% per year as predicted PV in the United States will offset 10 million metric tons of CO2 per year by 2027 – equivalent to the annual increase emitted by U.S. fossil fuel electricity generation. This means that the emission rate will become negative thereafter as the PV contribution grows!