Summary
Getting official statistics from United States based wind and solar power installations has been a challenge, with the Energy Information Agency (EIA) being notoriously slow in reporting emerging technologies. That has led industry observers to resort to a hodgepodge of state, local or private sources subject to varying degrees of accuracy. But the growth of wind and solar is starting to make noticeable headway in the latest annual reports coming out of the EIA.
Analysis
Until recently, the US wind and solar power markets have been frustrating to follow through official Energy Information Agency (EIA) statistics. The institutional slowness and lag time has forced industry observers to rely on private or other means that were often suspect. The latest report issued by the EIA, however, is showing that the wind and now the solar electric industries are being taken seriously and beginning to show statistical significance, especially in the last reporting year from 2007 to 2008.
Some factors to note:
- 39% of the new overall power plant capacity growth from 2007 to 2008 in the US is from wind power.
- Capacity factors have improved for both wind and solar have improved from 2007 to 2008. Wind power capacity factor rose from 23.8% to 24.9% and solar from 13.9% to 18.7%.
- Statistically significant amounts of solar and wind installations in different states (multi megawatts) have grown from 2007 to 2008. Wind power's major presence increased from 31 states to 24 states, and solar from 6 to 8 states, indicating increased spreading of the market.
Wind turbine manufacturers who that will be taking advantage of the US present and immediate future construction include Acciona, Clipper, GE, Mitsubishi, REPower, Siemens, Suzlon and Vestas. Major US photovoltaic players include Energy Conversion Devices , First Solar , Sunpower , Suntech (NYSE: STP) and a host of others.
Mark Burger consults with leading institutions through GLG
Analyses are solely the work of the authors and have not been edited or endorsed by GLG.
