By Stephen Lacey, Herman Trabish and Eric Wesoff | Greentech Media
The GTM Solar Summit kicked off yesterday with a pre-conference look at how states solar markets are faring. With more than 3.1 gigawatts of capacity installed last year, the U.S. market seems healthy and continues to grow. However, some states are in better shape than others.
On the state level, there are some major differences. GTM Research analysts led four panel discussions on the state of play in Arizona, Colorado, California and Texas. Here are some top-level takeaways from those discussions.
Arizona: a maturing market
Arizona installed 710.3 megawatts of solar capacity last year and has the second biggest cumulative capacity in the U.S., with 1,093.5 megawatts. Its reported installed costs rank among the lowest in the country.
However, the market is “definitely at a point where there is potential change,” said American Solar president Sean Seitz.
There were fewer than 1,500 systems installed in the Arizona Public Service (APS) territory in 2009. But solar incentives put in place by APS and other utilities to meet their 2025 state mandate of 15 percent renewables generated 2,000 applications for new systems in the first quarter of 2010. Now regulators and utilities are ending the incentive programs, explained APS Marketing and Account Executive Rex Stepp. “We don’t know what will happen in 2014,” he said.
“We are victims of our own success,” said Mark Holohan, the solar division manager at Wilson Electric. “We’re fighting a battle to [increase] the commitments. That takes political courage.”
If you’d like to discuss energy issues, contact Court Rich, Co-Chair of Rose Law Group’s Renewable Energy Department at crich@roselawgroup.com
