Solar power installations grow 8 percent

The rate of solar power capacity increase grew 8 percent in the second quarter of the year compared to the previous year, making it the highest second quarter on record.

Companies installed 2,387 gigawatts of solar photovoltaic panels, with the largest portion — 58 percent — coming in utility-scale solar, the Solar Energy Industries Association said Monday.

“This report shows once again that solar is on the rise and will continue to add to its share of electricity generation,” the association’s president, Abigail Ross Hopper, said in a statement.

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“Last year, solar companies added jobs 17 times faster than the rest of the economy and increased our GDP by billions of dollars. We are going to continue to fight for policies that allow the industry to continue this phenomenal growth.”

The results are part of the U.S. Solar Market Insight Report, which the Solar Energy Industries Association produces quarterly alongside GTM Research.

As a whole, the nonresidential solar market saw 31 percent growth over the first quarter. But residential solar, frequently installed on rooftops, grew only 1 percent, and fell 17 percent on a year-over-year basis, the association said.

The slow pace in residential solar installations stemmed primarily from national providers pulling back from California and the Northeast, the report concluded.