The Great Recession . . . Great For Solar

By Joe Salimando                    www.eleblog.com

Here’s what happened in 2009: The economy spent a lot of time in a crater. You already knew that? OK – let’s look at what happened in the economy’s solar segment:

• U.S. solar PV and CSP capacity topped 2,000 mW. [CSP = concentrating solar power]

• U.S. solar electric market annual installations grew from 351 mW in ’08 to 481 mW. That’s a 37% increase (which would be good even if not contrasted with a recession).

• The residential PV market doubled in size.

• Venture capitalists put $1.4 billion into the pockets of solar companies in ’09.

• Some stimulus money ($600 million of it) went to solar equipment manufacturers.

There’s a lot more information and data in the US Solar Industry Year In Review 2009, made public 4/15/10 by the Solar Energy Industries Association. Download a 12-page PDF here.

One of the interesting data points is embodied in the graphic below, which probably doesn’t need a caption:

What’s going to happen this year and into the future? Back in February, the Renewable Energy Technologies conference/show was held here in D.C. I attended one day, and got to hear a presentation by Roger Efird of Suntech Energy Solutions. It turns out he’s been the elected leader of SEIA.

His presentation was a roundup of estimates of the solar PV industry’s prospects in the near-term future. He was certain of 100% growth this year and saw a significant possibility that it will be followed up by 100% growth in 2011.

I wrote it up here. Relative to the graphic above, the write-up included this important sentence: “Efird also claimed that solar PV modules could drop in price — again — in 2010′s 2nd half.”