American Solar Industry To Grow Due To Utility Companies

Barclays Capital, a global investment bank, recently announced their estimations for the American solar industry. According to Barclays, the solar energy industry is expected to see a great deal of growth in the next few years even with the current economic issues.

The expected growth is attributed to utility companies investing in large-scale solar farms across the country. Half of the United States’ solar industry will potentially be made up of these utility projects. Barclays indicates that utility companies are expected to install 5 gigawatts of solar energy in just the next three years.

However, currently there are only 444 megawatts of solar energy put in place by utility companies in the U.S.. This equates to 2.8 million homes. Experts indicate that this amount will increase 12-fold in upcoming years. This is attributed to the plans for new solar farms in California, Hawaii, Florida and Arizona.

Federal stimulus money is expected to play a large part in the success of such projects since many banks are still in turmoil. Some utility companies argue that the government has not been clear as to how to access the federal money for such projects. The Treasury Department and the Department of Energy have indicated that this information should be made available in upcoming months.