Solar power installs almost doubled in 2010

(PhysOrg.com) -- The report for 2010 was released by the Solar Energy Industries Association on the solar markets and installations of the United States, and it revealed that solar power is a growing market.

In the United States 956 megawatts worth of all types of solar power were installed in 2010. That gave a cumulative installed capacity of 2.6 gigawatts and while this may sound like a lot of solar power it is only enough to power about 500,000 homes, and it represents less than one percent of all of the installed electricity capacity in the country.

Despite the relative scale of the contribution, this growth is still fairly impressive. When you compare it to numbers from the same report in 2009, the total value of solar installations was only $3.6 billion. In 2010 that total just about $6 billion. We can see that the capacity in dollar value almost doubled. Though not all solar sectors showed growth. One shrink of note was in the US's share of photovoltaic installations, which slipped to 5 percent of the world's total, down from 6.5 percent in 2009.

The reports also show that some states that are doing better on the conversion to solar power than others. California did the most in cumulative capacity of solar installations. Other states with notable cumulative capacity of solar installations include New Jersey, Florida, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Pennsylvania, which between them accounted for 76 percent of the solar capacity installed in 2010.

There are no predictions as to whether or not this trend will continue in 2011. Though, there is an industry wide goal of powering 2 million homes with solar power by 2015.