Solar Panel Electricity in USA

The USA has been in the driving seat of the world’s economy for the last few decades and that leadership now continues in the development of solar energy too (Nova Lumos). Being the largest energy consumer in the world has had critical ramifications on its foreign and economic policies and those have helped create an environment for promotion of energy self-sufficiency. As a result, the USA has set aggressive targets to elevate solar power from the status of a minor to a major contributor to the total electricity production.

The USA is endowed with the most important resource in this regard: sunlight. All the south-western states enjoy higher than the global average of sunny days and radiation intensity. The calculated theoretical energy production from its feasible exploitation is about 200 times more than the country’s entire power consumption in the year 2007. The government too has realized this potential and is rolling out innovative ideas to promote solar panel electricity in the USA. The efforts have borne fruits as the installed solar electric generation capacity has grow by over 400% between the years 2010 and 2014.

Such astounding growth has stunned industry experts, though it isn’t completely unexpected either. The USA boasts of the oldest solar power plant in the world, and that indicates the presence of this sector in the power industry for a long time. As the price of solar power dipped and that of fossil fuel based generation increased, many more power plants started springing up and currently there are over 20,000 MW worth of power stations under construction. The total solar generation capacity has crossed the 10,000 MW mark already, though.

All this has been possible in part due to a couple of other factors as well: tax credits and research/commercialization clusters. The federal government has been providing tax credits to the tune of 30% up to the year 2016. This entices capitalists to invest in solar panel electricity in USA. Also, clusters such as Solar America Initiative and Sun Shot Initiative boost activity in this sector. The first is essentially a business incubator aimed specifically at startups looking to improve upon solar cell technologies, whether it be increasing their efficiency through research or decreasing manufacturing cost via improvised methods. Most projects garner over $3 million in funding with a part of it being paid by industry. It is expected that those firms that produce marketable products will be given full assistance to convert their efforts into commercial success. The Sun Shot initiative is another bold move by the Department of Energy (DoE), a part of the federal government, to bring down the price of solar cells by 75% by the year 2020. It’s an ambitious project that encompasses the industry, academia and business fraternity to fine tune their respective contributive efforts so as to reduce input cost.

All the ideas envisaged and implemented so far herald a good future for solar panel electricity in USA. If everything goes as per plans, the USA may well become energy self-sufficient within a few decades and

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