Tariffs and tax reforms aimed at limiting solar funding have not weakened the sector, which in the first quarter of 2018 is growing and outperforming both wind and natural gas.
Despite all the obstacles the Trump administration has tried to place in the path of renewables, in the first quarter of this year the United States installed more solar energy than any other source of electricity, demonstrating once again how clear the road ahead is for clean technologies. This is what the Solar Energy Industries Association (Seia) and Gtm Research have found, having jointly published the report US Solar Market Insight: Q2 2018".
Between January and March 2018, American developers installed 2.5 gigawatts of solar energy, with a year-on-year change of +13 per cent. Solar grew far more than wind and natural gas, accounting for 55 per cent of all new generation capacity added to the American electricity grid. It is a result that solar photovoltaics achieved for the second consecutive quarter.
The growth of American solar is largely driven by utility-scale photovoltaics, through which utilities generate a portion of energy to feed into the grid. Growth has been led by solar projects created by groups of citizens and/or companies that have given rise to community initiatives. Residential photovoltaics, by contrast, remained broadly stable both on an annual and a quarterly basis. After four consecutive quarters of year-on-year decline, this segment too is showing signs of improvement compared to 2017.
In 2018, following the Trump administration's measures against solar panels imported from Asia — subjected to heavy tariffs of 30 per cent for the first three years and subsequently 15 per cent — solar installations were expected to fall or, at the very least, stall. Apparently, the data from Seia and Gtm Research show that is not what happened. The tariffs were just one of many obstacles that the American administration has tried to place in the way of renewables development and a new way of producing and using energy. As well as changing its mind on the Paris Agreement to keep climate change in check, Trump and his staff have sought to roll back Obama-era regulations on power plant emissions and have introduced sweeping tax reforms to limit funding for solar and wind.
Looking ahead, analysts at SEIA and GTM Research believe that total new solar installations in 2018 could reach an overall figure of 10.8 gigawatts. By 2023, annual installations should exceed 14 gigawatts and over the next five years the total installed photovoltaic capacity in the United States should double. According to SEIA Chief Executive Officer Abigail Ross Hopper, "solar has now become a common-sense choice for much of the United States, and the momentum is too strong to be held back for long, even in light of the tariffs [introduced]." In short, those who believe the way forward is to close the door on the new and entrench themselves in traditional positions are on notice: clean, sustainable energy is already a reality, and it will only become more so.
