US Home Solar Nearing 1 GW (+ Other Solar News)

October 24th, 2014 by Zachary Shahan

Aside from our extensive solar energy coverage, here are some more solar energy stories from around the interwebs that I wouldn’t want you to miss. Just adding a note regarding the first one, I’d just add that it’s almost shocking to me how far we’ve come in recent years. I started covering the solar industry in 2009 — it has changed so dramatically since then, and I think you’d have to be a lunatic to not realize that we are on the cusp of a massive distributed energy revolution. It’s especially great to see home solar power nearing 1 gigawatt of capacity. The revolution is beginning!

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About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.

Marion Meads

Today’s residential use of electricity amounts to about 1,400 TerraWatt hours per year. If we assume an equivalent 5 full sunshine hours per day, that would mean 767 GW of solar panel power needed, and we are just passing 1 GW capacity, supplying a mere 0.13% of residential demand. It means that the market potential is really huge for residential alone!

All in all, about 3,700 TerraWatt hours of electricity are used in the US. Residential, about 1,400 TWH, industrial about 950 TWH, and commercial, about 1,350 TWH.

Source: EIA: http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=14291#
- Offgridman
  
  “market potential is really huge for residential alone”
  Exactly, also for the money to be made in the conservation programs like the Texas PACE program from the negawatts. The big benefit will be for the homeowners and contractors, while allowing the investors to make a profit.
- timbuck93
  
  What people really need to do is use skylights.
  We can have ALL the solar power we want sure — but are we **REALLY** going to continue to use fluorescent lights everywhere?
  
  Why not just use the Sun? it’s so simple, at least I hope it is.