2013 Solar Industry Stats

[pleppik]

The Solar Energy Industry Association published its annual report on industry stats last week (summary here).

Keeping in mind that this is an industry trade association and part of their mandate is to promote the industry, here are some interesting nuggets:

• 792MW of residential solar was installed in the U.S. in 2013, 60% more than in 2012
• The average residential solar system in Q4 of 2013 was $4.59/watt, down from $5.03/watt in Q4 2012. Depending on which state you live in, the average price could be anywhere from $3/w to $7/w
• In 2013, the price of PV modules went up a little, but inverters and racks got cheaper, which is why the total system price went down
• Utilities installed over 3x as much PV last year as homeowners

[Sunking]

Yep all that money thrown away and not one single ounce of CO2 emissions has been reduced. At the end of 2013 solar PV made a whooping .002% of national production. So small it is insignificant. Hydro followed by wind are the only RE sources that really measure up to anything of about 8%.

[pleppik]

Yep all that money thrown away and not one single ounce of CO2 emissions has been reduced. At the end of 2013 solar PV made a whooping .002% of national production. So small it is insignificant. Hydro followed by wind are the only RE sources that really measure up to anything of about 8%.

Not sure where you're getting this number. According to the EIA, in 2012 solar generated about 5.6 billion kWh in the United States, and accounted for 0.11% of total electrical generation. 2013 numbers aren't out yet, but it would be shocking if the percentage from solar was lower. 0.11% isn't a huge number, but it's a lot bigger than 0.002%.

In 2013, hydro was 7% of electrical generation, and wind was 3.46%. Coal was 37%, and natural gas was 30%.

The amount of CO2 emissions avoided because of solar depends on the fuel source for the electricity not generated (reference). Assuming that most solar power offsets natural gas, the U.S. solar generation in 2012 eliminated about 3,391 tons of CO2 emissions. That's still a really small number in the grand scheme of things, but it's far from nothing.

To put this into context: if your car gets 20MPG and you drive 12,000 miles/year, your driving is emitting about 5.9 tons of CO2 per year (data here). If you replace this with a car which gets 40MPG, you will reduce your CO2 emissions by about 2.9 tons of CO2/year. If you put solar panels on your roof and generate 5,000 kWh/year and that's power your utility would have generated from natural gas, then your solar panels will prevent about 3 tons/year of CO2 from being emitted.

(If the power would have come from coal, then you prevent about 5.25 tons of CO2 emissions/year. If the power would have come from nuclear or hydro, then you didn't avoid any CO2 emissions at all.)

So to a first approximation, a residential PV system has about the same CO2 impact as trading in your minivan for a Prius.

[russ]

Let us stay away from the CO2 and warming stuff. You are right that 0.1% ain't much!

Thread closed as this is just bait for replies.