2013 brought with it a breath of fresh air to the solar industry by breaking records and setting the stage for some big things to come. While it’s still a bit early to call solar photovoltaics “mainstream,” we’re getting closer and closer to that point. We’ve compiled a list of some solar industry statistics of 2013 that really show just how far we’ve come, as well as how far we still need to go. Take a look at these statistics and give us your feedback, or, a statistic you know of that we didn’t include.
4 minutes
2006 – In 2006, U.S. solar installers were putting up a new PV system every 80 minutes.
2013 – 2013 saw a shift to the U.S. becoming a global leader in solar: At our current pace, every 4 minutes, another American home or business goes solar. This is a huge jump from where we were just 7 years ago.
By 2016, it is estimated that a new solar system will be deployed every 80 seconds.
To go from 80 minutes to 80 seconds in just 10 years is no small feat and it just goes to show that mainstream solar is fast approaching.
(Update: In his State of the Union speech, President Obama mentioned the fact that every 4 minutes another home or business goes solar. Thanks to GTM Research for providing us with that fact and thank you to President Obama for using it in your speech!)
100 gigawatts
2011 – The global solar industry had 50 gigawatts of capacity installed.
2012 – By the end of 2012, it had surpassed 100 gigawatts, doubling the capacity in just one year.
By the end of 2015, global solar capacity is expected to reach more than 200 gigawatts. In just four years, we could easily quadruple our solar generation capacity.
2.5 years 
The 100 gigawatt number is an important benchmark as it took nearly 40 years to get 50 gigawatts installed. In just 2.5 years, however, two-thirds of all solar PV projects were built worldwide.
10 gigawatts
In the third quarter of 2013, the U.S. installed 930 megawatts of solar generation, surpassing the 10 gigawatts of cumulative capacity. With these numbers, the U.S. joins a small group of other countries, four to be exact, that have reached this milestone. For the first time in 15 years, the U.S. will likely install more solar photovoltaics than Germany when 2013 comes to a close.
51 percent
The solar market has historically been dependent on state-level subsidy programs, however, California has begun phasing out solar incentive for residential projects. According to GTM Research, 51 percent of residential PV systems were installed without the help of the California Solar Initiative. This is impressive as it shows that even without subsidies, people are still willing to make the financial commitment to go solar.
$0.70 per kilowatt
Net metering continues to be a hot-button issue in the world of solar as more and more states continue to battle the issue out. This fall, the Arizona Corporation Commission agreed to a compromise in order to preserve net metering, charging solar owners $0.70 per kilowatt a month. People in the solar industry are now wondering if this will set a precedent for other states to follow.
$0.36 per watt
China beat everyone to the punch by taking hold of monocrystalline production and in turn being able to charge whatever it wanted for the solar cells it was manufacturing. However, since 2010, top Chinese manufacturers dropped monocrystalline solar module costs by 54 percent and are on a trend to produce solar modules for $0.36 per watt by 2017. China is able to do this by refining their processes and automating their plants to reduce labor costs.
59 percent
Twice this year, Germany’s wind and solar installations provided 59 percent of power in the middle of the day, while also providing more than a third of generation throughout the entire day. On one occasion in October, solar peaked at 20.5 gigawatts of capacity and wind reached 16.6 gigawatts, with both providing more than 436 gigawatt-hours of electricity. That forced 23 gigawatts of conventional power plants to ramp down. We’re not quite there yet here in America, but we’re pushing to get there and every year brings advancements in technology and access to affordable photovoltaics.
One-third
Germany’s second biggest utility, RWE, has lost one-third of its value over the last three years according to The Economist. In light of this, RWE has begun to embrace the reality of solar, announcing that it would become “a project enabler and operator, and a system integrator of renewables” based on a “prosumer” business model.
64 percent
According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the non-hardware costs of residential solar installations now account for nearly two-thirds of the total system cost, up from 50 percent in 2011. These costs include labor, supply chain logistics, permitting, and customer acquisition.
$1 billion 
If the U.S. solar industry is going to hit the 362,000 installations in 2016 forecast by GTM Research, it will spend more than $1 billion to get the customer leads needed. That amounts to $0.49 per watt, or about 10 percent of the total cost of an installation. To deal with this expense, leading solar companies are developing new project management tools, crafting new sales strategies, and buying up lead generation companies. GTM Research’s Nicole Litvak sees customer acquisition as one of the most innovative areas of solar in the U.S.
25 percent
According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 25 percent of residential and commercial rooftops in America are suitable for solar. This reality creates a big opportunity for crowdsourced and community solar projects, two models that has been steadily gaining traction in the U.S. This also shows that home builders need to be aware of the potential that the home owner may want solar and design the home and more specifically the roof, to allow for a future PV installation.

Every year it seems, we hear a new set of words to describe a particular event, movement, or industry. We call these, “buzzwords,” and here is our list of buzzwords for clean energy in 2013:
Resiliency
The term “resiliency” first rose to fame after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Clearly one of the most overused words of 2013, it has become a catchall for all things relating to strengthening infrastructure.
For solar energy, this means more solar grids and less reliance on the traditional forms of electric generation and a smarter electrical grid in general.
We stress this concept at Solar Components by offering the JOOS Orange so people can strengthen their own personal electric grid and be prepared in the event of a power outage or natural disaster.
Securitization
This is a relatively new concept in the world of solar energy but in 2013, more companies began the process of securitization by forming asset-backed securities. In November, SolarCity announced the first offering ever of securitized solar for distributed PV.
With the lack of long-term data and standardization, the process of securitization is a slow one, and one that will take years to gain traction. We won’t have energy efficiency securitization by 2014, but it’s definitely on its way.
Change management
Older people in the utilities sector will tell you one of the hardest parts of changing over to a new source of power is change management. Verizon spent billions of dollars beefing up its infrastructure and changing over to a fiber optic based network and like Verizon, the utility industry will need to do the same thing with these new modes of electricity generation. With solar, wind, hydro, and other clean energy sources, change management has been a long road and we still have a long ways to go.
Intelligent efficiency
We all want to save energy, after all, it lowers our electric bill and makes us feel good knowing we’re helping to keep the cost of electricity down and put less stress on the electric grid. After a while though, the message begins to fall flat.
“With dramatic advances in web-based monitoring, real-time data analytics and utilities using peak pricing, that hidden resource is now becoming something tangible: an asset that companies can measure, manage, procure and sell,” writes Stephen Lacey. Efficiency and demand-side management are starting to merge, both in our biggest buildings and in our homes.
Decentralization
Like the term “resiliency,” “decentralization” is often used in the same speech about the importance of compartmentalizing and strengthening our means of electric distribution.
Enter the world of microgrids: Microgrids are mostly limited to neighborhood schools, universities (UC David, for example), and DOD projects, to name a few, but that is beginning to change.
Microgrids are smaller grids that can operate on their own, while still being tied into the larger grids on a regular basis. This type of technology allows schools to stay open and function when the power goes out, and the military and government agencies to function in the event of a natural disaster.
Over in the solar world, there is a movement toward using smaller inverters or trackers to reduce the effect of the failure of a single unit, said MJ Shiao, solar market senior analyst with GTM Research. This is driving the push for commercial 3-phase string inverters in the U.S. and string inverters in large-scale solar globally. “We’ll continue to see this theme catch on in 2014,” said Shiao, “especially in the power electronics and moving pieces in solar projects.”
Utility death spiral
There is no sugar-coating what’s happening in the utility industry. Many executives would say that we all still need warm showers and cold beer, and most of us will need the grid for those energy needs in the foreseeable future. But who is left paying for an updated grid is certainly up for debate, and there is a real possibility that some utilities — perhaps hamstrung by sloth-like regulators — will simply be left holding the wires.
Financial innovation
Securitization, one of the buzzwords of 2013, is just one financial innovation that has come to the clean energy market.
Solar leasing is already changing the market at a significant rate, while REITs (real estate investment trusts) and MLPs (master limited partnerships) are a couple more more examples of investment vehicles that will help renewable energy even more.
“The clean energy sector has traditionally been defined by technological breakthroughs,” writes Stephen Lacey. “But now that technologies have matured to a level where investors feel comfortable, financial breakthroughs may just be the most important market driver.”
Grid edge
Large-scale transmission projects are changing the way we produce and use energy. Distributed generation, primarily rooftop PV, is probably the most obvious current disruptor, but energy storage, electric vehicles, microgrids and even more flavors of demand response are coming down the road.
Net metering
A buzzword and hot-button issue all in one, is the term “net metering.” Net metering requires some regulated utilities to reimburse customers at retail rates for the solar energy they send to the grid from their rooftop PV’s and microgrids. The battle rages on in several states across the U.S.
While some states are more progressive with this idea, like Arizona and California for example, with its AB 327 bill that kept net metering in place, other states like Texas, don’t even consider it.
The decisions in Arizona and California will influence the outcome in other states in 2014 and beyond but be prepared for a long, hard fought battle to get there.
Prosumer
A “prosumer” is generally considered someone who is both a producer and consumer of electricity, usually in the form of having some sort of solar PV on the roof of their homes or business.
As solar energy generation becomes more affordable for prosumers over the next few years, expect to see more PV systems being installed on people’s rooftops, carports, and yards.
We hope you enjoyed reading about some of the clean-energy buzzwords of 2013. Have a clean-energy buzzword we didn’t share on our list? Email it to us at info@joos.net and we may include it in another article!