U.S. Solar Market Stats: Q1 2011 by the Numbers

A solar graphic from Greentech Media and SEIA is worth 1,000 words.

Eric Wesoff July 04, 2011

Eric Wesoff

Editor-at-Large
Greentech Media

Eric Wesoff is Editor-at-Large at Greentech Media. Prior to joining GTM, Eric Wesoff founded Sage Marketing Partners in 2000 to provide sales and marketing-consulting services to venture-capital firms and their portfolio companies in the alternative energy and telecommunications sectors. Mr. Wesoff has become a well-known, respected authority and speaker in these fields.

His expertise covers solar power, fuel cells, biofuels and advanced batteries. His strengths are in market research and analysis, business development and due diligence for investors. He frequently consults for energy startups and Silicon Valley's premier venture capitalists.

The U.S. solar market has been a late bloomer.

But it came into its own in 2011, surpassing one gigawatt for the first time, and shows signs of being one of the top, if not the top global market for solar in the coming years.

SEIA has said “solar is the fastest-growing industry in the U.S.” Rhone Resch, President of SEIA, said that the solar industry employs 100,000 Americans and that that number could double in the next two years. Within a few years, the U.S. will be the world's largest solar market, according to SEIA.

Jobs are up, installations are way up for PV and CSP, manufacturing growth is up and prices are coming down.

We've provided the stats for you in a few handy formats, suitable for inclusion in articles, websites, bumper stickers, or lower-back tattoos.

The data here comes from GTM Research's Solar Market Insight quarterly report -- more info here.

And if you're still obsessed with solar statistics, check out the U.S. Utility PV Market Tracker from GTM Research, which includes, among other things, a database of every operating and contracted utility PV project in the country, as well as most earlier-stage projects (a total of 391 projects as of today).