The invaluable Stephen Lacey writes U.S. Installs Record Amount Of Solar So Far In 2012: Analyst Calls It The 'Opening Act' For 4th Quarter Boom:| Almost exactly a year ago, during the height of the Solyndra hysteria, Mitt Romney made a rather odd statement about solar. (Yes, we're still talking about Romney). 'When other solar companies saw Solyndra get $530 million from the government, investors pulled back in that industry,' he said. 'So instead of encouraging solar development, the Obama administration hurt it.' Actually, the statement wasn't just odd. It was a flat out lie. In reality, the U.S. solar industry installed record amounts of solar in 2011 while bringing in nearly $2 billion in venture capital. And moving into 2012, that trend continued. In the second quarter of this year, U.S. solar installations jumped 116 percent over the same period in 2011, partly driven by large installations supported by the very loan guarantee program that Romney claimed was killing solar. And according to Shayle Kann, vice president of research at GTM Research, that deployment was just 'the opening act' for the final quarter of this year. According to a new report from GTM and the Solar Energy Industries Association, the U.S. market could see 1.2 gigawatts of solar photovoltaics installed through January, bringing 2012 installations to 3.2 gigawatts. That's enough capacity to power about half a million average American homes.  Solar electric installations have been soaring and appear on the vergeof a record fourth quarter in 2012. |
However, the "sequestration" of parts of the federal budget that would occur if the Congress and President Obama do not come to agreement this year or in the first few months of 2013 could cut those jobs, and jobs in the other renewables industry, significantly, according to a new study by the Economic Policy Institute.
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