Solar energy - General overview

Our Sun is the most abundant source of energy on our planet. However, due to a long-term fossil fuel dominance as well as inadequate development of solar power technologies solar energy is far from being regarded as one of the most important energy sources in the world. Many energy experts believe that this will change in years to come, and that one day, maybe even before the end of this century solar power will rule the world as the world's most dominant energy source.

In order to dominate the future solar power has to solve several very important issues. First thing solar industry needs to do is to decrease high solar technology costs. Regardless what some may think solar energy is still far from being regarded as one of the cheapest energy options, even despite the recent drop of prices in solar panel market. Even despite the increased popularity of solar power technologies many people are still far from being ready to pay extra to go solar, and rather stick with cheap but dirty energy options such as coal.


Solar energy is also still very inefficient energy source. The amount of sunshine that Earth receives each day is enormous but solar panels and other solar power technologies lack required efficiency to use the most of it. Better efficiency means more generated electricity, and many scientists are already working on possible solutions to this very important issue. When talking about efficiency of solar power technologies we must not forget solar energy storage issue. Our Sun, as many of you probably already know, is intermittent energy source, meaning that solar power is not available all the time (during the night), and thus we require adequate solar storage methods that would ensure reliability of solar generated energy.

As you can see solar energy still has a lot of different issues that need to be resolved before solar energy industry becomes major player on global energy market. Science is working hard in search of adequate answers, and what solar energy industry desperately needs is one breakthrough discovery that would make solar energy cost-competitive with fossil fuels. Once this happens solar energy will become foundation our economies and industries, the same thing that oil and coal are today. Hopefully, we won't have to wait too long for this moment to come.

US photovoltaic industry

According to the latest reports the US solar PV market grew 36% in 2009 despite the global financial crisis. However, financial crisis was still heavily felt as this number is significantly smaller compared to 2008 when there was 62% growth of US solar energy market. Looking at this data from global perspective in 2009 US was ranked fourth largest solar photovoltaic market, behind Germany, Italy and Japan.

Projections for year 2010 are even better. According to Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) the United States is on track to experience a record year for PV installations in 2010. In the first half of the year 339 MW of grid-connected PV were installed. On an annual basis, this represents 55% growth over the 435 MW installed in 2009, but SEIA expect even higher growth because many projects will rush to commence construction in order to meet eligibility deadlines for the cash grant program, and some of these projects will ultimately be connected to the grid within the year.

Craig Stevens, President of Solarbuzz, recently announced that the 2009 results for US solar industry were associated with changes in the roles of utility companies, new market entrants, lower cost PV modules from Asia and new direct-to-market approaches became more prevalent. Asian solar energy market is becoming more and more challenging, and US solar industry will have to adapt quickly to these challenges to remain one of the top players in solar energy market.


Among US states California is mostly noted as the leading US state when it comes to solar energy. California currently has 53% of total US photovoltaic on-grid installations, and will likely maintain its strong position. Current predictions say that the US solar market will likely grow to between 4.5-5.5 GW which is around ten times the size of the 2009 market, an average annual growth rate of 30% per annum. Though this is still too little to challenge the dominance of fossil fuels it is still a sign that US solar industry is going forwards, and that one day solar power will be among the most important energy sources in United States.

US solar industry employs almost 100,000 people, and is projected to support over half a million American jobs by 2016. These jobs exist across many sectors of the economy—from manufacturing and engineering, to construction and sales, and across supporting industries.