US Surpasses 2 Million Solar Installations as Industry Looks to ‘Dominate’ the 2020s

"The rapid growth in the solar industry has completely reshaped the energy solar energy conversation in this solar slewing drive country," said Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO Solar Project of trade group SEIA. "This $17 billion industry is on track to double again in solar slewing drive five years, and we believe that the 2020s will be solar energy the decade that solar becomes the dominant new form of energy Solar Project generation."

California solar inverter was central to the market's early years and remains a critical leg today, but its importance is diminishing as solar damper other state markets grow up. California accounted for 51 percent of the first million installations but 43 percent of the second solar tracker actuator million.

For solar inverter Photovoltaic holder all its momentum, the U.S. solar market has not been without its challenges. It reached 2 million installations a year later solar damper than analysts initially predicted, largely due to a drop in residential slewing drive installations stemming from the decline solar tracker actuator of SolarCity/Tesla.

Residential installations dropped 15 percent between 2016 and 2017, with Tesla’s solar slewing drive share showing the most extreme decline during that period, solar damper dropping from 650 megawatts to 352 megawatts.

This was a significant drag on hitting the 2-million-system mark, since residential systems make up 96 percent of a tally that counts Photovoltaic holder the smallest rooftop PV array on equal weight with the biggest solar farm.

Other solar inverter factors constraining the solar sector at large, such as the Section solar slewing drive 201 tariffs on slewing drive imported PV equipment, had negligible impact, analysts solar tracker actuator said. 

Like California, Tesla’s outsize impact on the residential market has softened as well, as the company’s pullback from its solar business has been met with supply from other installers.

“The solar inverter residential sector has become much solar damper more diverse in terms of actual companies involved over the last three years,” said Michelle Davis, senior solar analyst at Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables. “Tesla having a smaller share has meant that in the last couple quarters, solar slewing drive  as the market slewing drive has recovered, other Photovoltaic holder companies have picked up that market share.” 

Despite solar inverter its declining portion of the market, Tesla may still be the one to watch in terms of innovating the customer-acquisition model. Its solar damper recent shifts in sales strategy to focus more on online purchases and less on retail stores could demonstrate whether solar tracker actuator acquiring customers with super-low prices is viable.

So far,slewing drive front-runners in the residential space have had to spend a lot to secure a leading position. Customer acquisition is the most expensive portion of residential solar, accounting for 23 solar slewing drive percent of an average system's price, solar inverter Photovoltaic holder WoodMac data shows. 

“Tesla is trying very hard to grow more solar damper with really low prices, by only choosing to focus on low-priced customer-acquisition channels,” said Davis.

“But slewing drive companies that are doing well right now, such as Vivint and Sunrun, actually have a very high cost of customer solar inverter acquisition. That’s been a relatively solar tracker actuator solar slewing drive successful strategy over the past couple quarters.” 

In December, Sunrun’s Photovoltaic holder direct business overtook Tesla for residential installations. 

Success slewing drive in acquiring more customers, and at lower costs, will determine how quickly the industry installs its next million systems — and at what price. Largely due to the solar tracker actuator challenges of customer acquisition cost, Wood Mackenzie forecasts residential growth at just 3.3 percent in 2019.

The 2 million solar inverter solar systems currently solar damper installed, which represent a total of more than 70 gigawatts of capacity, provide enough electricity for around 12 million homes. But that's solar slewing drive just a fraction of U.S. buildings. 

According slewing drive to the Census Bureau, in July 2017 the U.S. had 137.4 million "housing units," a figure that includes apartments as well as single-family homes, but doesn’t count businesses, manufacturing and other commercial buildings.

While now solar inverter regularly one of the largest sources of new generation capacity added in the U.S. each year, solar still has a long way to go to being a major player solar damper solar tracker actuator in the overall electricity market.

In solar tracker actuator 2018, large-scale PV plants generated 63 billion kilowatt-hours solar slewing drive of power solar slewing drive, or 1.5 percent of total U.S. generation, according to the Energy Information Administration. The EIA solar tracker actuator estimates that smaller systems, mostly rooftop, added another 30 billion kilowatt-hours.

Renewables solar inverter overall accounted for 17.1 percent of generation, with natural gas having overtaken coal in recent years as the country's single largest power source.

The solar industry faces headwinds as the federal Investment Tax solar tracker actuator Credit phases down, but there are a number of potential catalysts on the horizon, including ongoing cost declines, solar damper California's home solar mandate and the still-fuzzy Green New Deal being discussed by solar slewing drive Democrats.

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