13 March, 2015—The United States installed 6,201 MW of new solar photovoltaic capacity in 2014, growing a record 30 percent year over year from 2013, say analysts at Greentech Media (Boston, Mass., USA) and the Solar Energy Industry Association (Washington, D.C.). The annual U.S. Solar Market Insight 2014 Year in Review report says that an additional 767 MW of concentrating solar power also came online in 2014, bringing total new installed solar capacity to 8 GW for 2014. All-time installed solar capacity is now 20 GW, enough to reduce harmful carbon emissions by 20 million metric tons a year by powering 4 million U.S. homes.
The report also revealed that California remained the largest installer by state with North Carolina a distant second. New installations are expected to grow 31 percent in 2015 to about 8.1 GW.
The growth is partly fueled by the solar Investment Tax Credit, passed in 2006. Solar power accounted for a third of all new electric generating capacity in the United States last year.