\r\n\r\n\r\n
<\/a>\r\nAccording to GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries\r\nAssociation’s\r\n\r\nSolar Market Insight Year in Review 2013<\/a>, photovoltaic\r\ninstallations continued to proliferate, increasing 41 percent over\r\n2012 to reach 4,751 megawatts. In addition, 410 megawatts of\r\nconcentrating solar power came on-line.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nSolar was the second-largest source of new electricity generating\r\ncapacity in the U.S., exceeded only by natural gas. Additionally,\r\nthe cost to install solar fell throughout the year, ending the year\r\n15 percent below the mark set at the end of 2012.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nAt the end of 2013 there were more than 440,000 operating solar\r\nelectric systems in the U.S. totaling over 12,000 megawatts of\r\nphotovoltaics (PV) and 918 megawatts of concentrating solar power\r\n(CSP).\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\nNotice the accelerating growth rates. 46%\/31% = 48% faster sounds\r\ngood for natural gas. But 29%\/10% is 190% faster for solar power.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\r\n
<\/a>\r\n
\r\nAnd solar growth accelerated during 2013:\r\n
\r\n\r\nThe U.S. installed 2,106 megawatts in the fourth quarter alone, 44\r\npercent of the annual total. This makes Q4 2013 by far the largest\r\nquarter in the history of the U.S. market, surpassing the\r\nsecond-largest quarter by 60 percent.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\n“Perhaps more important than the numbers,” writes Shayle\r\nKann, Senior Vice President at GTM Research, “2013 offered the\r\nU.S. solar market the first real glimpse of its path toward\r\nmainstream status. The combination of rapid customer adoption,\r\ngrassroots support for solar, improved financing terms and public\r\nmarket successes displayed clear gains for solar in the eyes of both\r\nthe general population and the investment community.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\nAnd\r\n\r\nthe biggest target export market for LNG exports<\/a>, China,\r\ninstalled 12 GW of solar power in 2013, doubling its rate of installation,\r\naccording to Jennifer Duggan in the Guardian 30 January 2014,\r\n\r\nChina sets new world record for solar installations:\r\nChina installed more solar energy than any other country in the world in 2013<\/a>,\r\nquoting “an analysis by Li Shuo, a policy and energy analyst at Greenpeace East Asia.”\r\n
\r\nIt is also more solar than China had installed in all the years prior to 2013 put together, according to Li.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n
<\/a>\r\nSolar power\r\n\r\nis going to win<\/a>, probably within a decade in the U.S.\r\n\r\n\r\nAdd wind<\/a> and we don’t need any new fossil fuel generation.\r\n\r\nSwitch to LED lighting<\/a>\r\nand we can shut down the entire U.S. nuclear fleet, much less build new nukes.\r\nWe know the answer: solar, wind, and water.\r\nGreen energy\r\n\r\nis already winning<\/a>.\r\n
\r\n\r\n
<\/a>\r\nSo let’s get on with solar power instead of\r\n\r\nwasting more resources\r\non piping fracked gas<\/a>, especially aiming for export.\r\nWe can generate all the new power we need from the sun right here.\r\nToo bad if that won’t generate as much profit for fossil fuel and\r\nutility executives.\r\nSolar power is much better for the rest of us.\r\n
\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Solar power is already second only to methane in new energy generation, and solar is increasing its growth rate much faster than “natural” gas. Solar is going to win, and quickly. How many unnecessary, destructive, and hazardous pipelines will we let the fracking industry gouge through here before we get on with solar power for […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14,16,6124,6687,24],"tags":[398,8704,8706,8701,8702,12,7,562,6076,8714,4255,6],"class_list":["post-8079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-natural-gas-2","category-pipeline-2","category-solar","tag-china","tag-economy","tag-environment","tag-georgia","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-natural-gas","tag-pipeline","tag-solar","tag-u-s","tag-valdosta"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-26j","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8079"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8083,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8079\/revisions\/8083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}