America Supports Solar

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Quick Solar Facts

Solar is on its way to revolutionize the world energy. From small home devices to endless solar plants.

Residential solar

With solar use growing from year to year residential homeowners now have a choice of very budget options to go solar.

Average investment payback period on residential solar is between 5 and 8 years.
The cost to install a residential solar system has decreased by 64% just for the past decade and by staggering 75% when we take into account the federal solar tax credit of 30%.
Total number of residential solar installations has officially reached 2 million mark in 2019. Analysts estimate it's increase to 3 million in 2021 and 4 million (double the current number) in 2023.

Solar is the new economic engine

As of now, solar is a 17-billion-dollar (per-year) market, looking to double within the next 5 years. No wonder it generates jobs. Many well-paid jobs.

Currently there are 244,340 solar workers in 50 US states plus Puerto Rico. With government incentives in key solar states and many industrial projects being deployed, this number is going to grow.
56% of workers are employed in residential, 30% in non-residential and 14% in utility-scale projects. The vast majority works in Installation and Project Development sectors, with the rest split evenly between Manufacturing and Trade/Distribution. And a lower number employed in Operations and Maintenance.
The median wages are $32/hour for mid-level electricians and $28/hour for non-electrician occupations ($24/19 per hour for entry-level technicians).

Solar by state statistics

People across the nation enjoy the benefits of solar. Some states are just suited better for installing a system. Others offer better returns because of local electricity rates.

Top five states by installed capacity:

Residents of Massachusetts and Rhode Island have the quickest payback period in the country (4 years). Followed by New Jersey, New York, Washington D.C. and Hawaii (6 years).

Total US estimated capacity – 69,1 GGW, enough to power over 13 million homes.

Commercial solar

Not only private individuals, but also corporate users are understanding the benefits of solar. Below is a list of top five companies by deployed capacity:

There’s still a lot of potential in growing commercial use, as even major players plan to install more solar in their stores. For example, only 11% of Costco warehouses have it installed and only 11% of Kohl’s.

Apple, for example, has a plan to launch a 20 MW operation in their new datacenter in North Carolina.

Community solar

Today, even despite their best wishes to use solar power, many consumers don’t have access to it. Reasons can be many: some of them rent, live in apartments or have roofs, unsuitable for solar installation. Many can’t afford upfront costs of a rooftop installation.

Thanks to community solar projects, they can still benefit from renewable energy.

Currently, 40 states have at least one utility-scale solar plant the offers shared use to these consumers.

Within the next five years a total of 3.5 GW capacity of community solar projects will be online, enough to power about 700,000 homes.