Solar Installations Soared in the U.S. in 2016
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603664/solar-installations-soared-in-the-us-in-2016/[font face=Serif][font size=5]Solar Installations Soared in the U.S. in 2016[/font]
[font size=4]And the rate of new wind installations looks primed for a surge in the next few years.[/font]
by Jamie Condliffe | February 15, 2017
[font size=3]Solar installations are soaring in the U.S., almost doubling in 2016and new tax incentives mean that wind power may also see a surge by 2020.
Figures
published by the Solar Energy Industries Association show that 14,626 megawatts worth of photovoltaic installations went online in 2016. Thats up from 7,493 megawatts of capacity that were added in 2015a 95 percent increase year-on-year.
In fact, a new
report written by Bloomberg New Energy Finance for the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, an industry group, shows that solar accounts for much of the growth in low-carbon energy production over the past few years. New wind capacity, meanwhile, arrived in the same quantity in 2016 as it did in 2015.
The same report notes that a set of tax credits were made available for wind power projects at the end of 2015 for projects that start construction by 2019. That means that there should be a surge in wind installations in the coming years, predicted to peak in 2020, according to BNEF.
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http://www.seia.org/news/us-solar-market-grows-95-2016-smashes-records