Full Title: U.S. Solar Market Insight Q3 2015 (Executive Summary)
Author(s): GTM Research
Publisher(s): GTM Research
Publication Date: December 1, 2015
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
The U.S. solar market remains on track for a record-breaking year, with 1,361 MWdc installed during Q3 2015, bringing the market up to 4.1 GWdc through the first three quarters of 2015. Thanks to a booming residential PV market and continued realization of the utility sector’s double-digit gigawatt project pipeline, Q3 2015 marks the eighth consecutive quarter in which the U.S. added more than 1 GWdc of solar PV.
Over the next 12 months, however, 1 GWdc will serve as a distant floor for quarterly U.S. PV installation volumes. Headlined by the utility PV segment, we expect the U.S. solar market to experience a record-breaking Q4 2015, with more than 3 GWdc of solar installations. In 2016, developers will have a laser-like focus on project build-out in order to qualify for the 30% federal Investment Tax Credit, which is scheduled to step down to 10% for utility, commercial, and third- party-owned residential PV, and to expire altogether for direct-owned residential PV on January 1, 2017. This focus on project build-out and pipeline pull-in has increased dramatically to the point where GTM Research is now forecasting more than 15 GWdc to come on-line in 2016 alone, and between Q4 2015 and Q4 2016, cumulative U.S. PV installations are poised to nearly double, eclipsing the 40 GWdc mark for operating solar PV capacity.