The solar energy explosion of 2015

Solar installation on Walmart store, Mountain View, CA

Did you notice a lot more solar panels in 2014, on homes, schools, shopping malls, street lights, road signs, public lands and elsewhere? If so, you weren’t imagining things. Solar energy installations are taking off in the United States and elsewhere around the world, to the point where 2015 is shaping up to be the Year of Solar Power. Take a look at some of the recent growth in solar energy:

In the U.S., the Obama administration has authorized, and in some cases granted loan guarantees to companies to construct, numerous solar power facilities on public lands. One such facility we covered here at Messaging Matters is the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in the California desert outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. Ivanpah, which is visible to motorists on Interstate 15, is a public-private partnership which powers 140,000 homes on a continuous basis, and which has created some 1,000 construction jobs. As a result of projects like these, as well as a federal renewable energy tax credit, the amount of electricity generated by utility-scale photovoltaic power plants in the U.S. more than doubled in 2014 over 2013.

Moreover, plenty of private business, home owners and others in the U.S. are installing solar energy systems. According to one estimate, home rooftop solar installations in the U.S. have grown from 30,000 in 2006 to 400,000 in 2013, and will continue to grow to an estimated 900,000 to 3.8 million homes by 2020. Additionally, solar photovoltaic system installations at U.S. K-12 schools have quintupled since 2008. Part of the reason for such growth is that, as Goldman Sachs reported last year, solar energy is rapidly approaching “grid parity” — the point at which it is as cheap or cheaper as a source of electricity — with fossil fuels. Indeed, such price parity between solar and conventional electric power (such as from coal-fired plants) has already been reached in at least 10 U.S. states.

That’s also one reason why other countries are plowing ahead with solar energy. China is going all-out with solar installations, leading the world with a 32 percent increase in solar investment in 2014. Of course, China has a more centralized government, which decreases the chances of its solar efforts being derailed over politics. Moreover, part of China’s rapid deployment of solar power is the dire need to address its horrendous air pollution problem that has resulted from its fast-growing population and industrialization.

India, likewise, is planning to construct the world’s largest solar farm, on the water. One of the contractors building this $4 billion facility is U.S.-based SunEdison. Japan already uses this floating solar farm model, in order to save space. Other countries with a large amount of solar energy deployment include Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Australia, Belgium and the United Kingdom. Even Jamaica has converted the lights along one of its main highways to solar-powered lights, as a “cost-saving initiative.”

Now, there are some factors, such as cheap oil or fossil fuel-fed Republicans in the U.S. Congress, that could slow the growth of solar power. Part of the challenge in America is to overcome phony Republican objections and to tout solar power as an excellent source of energy, jobs, economic growth, technology exports, enhanced national security, and pollution and climate change reduction. Increasingly, however, the business case for solar power is becoming extremely compelling, which suggests that solar’s popularity will continue to grow regardless of shifts in the political winds.

Photo by Walmart, used under Creative Commons license. http://is.gd/kDfmCz