Full Title: U.S. Solar Market Insight Report: Q1 2015 (Executive Summary)
Author(s): Shayle Kann, MJ Shiao, Cory Honeyman, Nicole Litvak, Jade Jones, and Leandra Cooper
Publisher(s): GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association
Publication Date: June 1, 2015
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
Despite a snow-packed winter in the Northeast, the U.S. solar market had a strong first quarter in 2015 with 1,306 MWdc of installations across the country. For a variety of reasons ranging from weather to accounting and tax purposes, Q1 tends to be a slow quarter for solar installations. That was true in both the non-residential and utility solar markets this year, both of which were down quarter-over-quarter from Q4 2014. But the residential market saw no such decline and instead grew 11% over Q4 2014 to have its largest quarter ever.
We anticipate another record year for solar in the U.S. in every market segment. The residential juggernaut will continue to roll on, while the non-residential market will pick up, particularly in California and New York. And the utility-scale pipeline has reached unprecedented levels ahead of the looming federal Investment Tax Credit expiration.
Beyond the numbers, one important trend is rapidly gaining traction throughout the market: technology convergence. Whereas distributed solar has historically been primarily a single offering to customers, solar developers and installers are increasingly seeking opportunities to combine solar with other technologies and services. Among the more prominent adjacent offerings: