India and US solar market outlook

In India, the price of solar power has plummeted in recent months positioning the renewable source as a viable option.Solar is very competitive and represents a huge relief for India which wants to get more and more solar power. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made access to electricity a top priority, and has set the goal of making 24-hour power available to all 1.3 billion Indians. To improve the power supply, Modi has set the goal of bringing 100 gigawatts (GW) of solar-based power online by 2022, a twenty-fold increase from current levels. Infrastructure must also be improved and the 280 GW electric grid needs to be expanded and modernized.The environmental benefit of solar will be even more pronounced if its rise comes at the expense of coal, which currently makes up 60% of India’s energy production.

In the US, the solar market is set to grow a staggering 119% in 2016 with 16 GW of solar to be installed in 2016, more than doubling the record-breaking 7.3 GW installed in 2015 to reach 27.4 GW of current total installed capacity.While utility-scale installations will represent 74% of the installations of the year, the residential and commercial markets will also experience strong growth in 2016. One million solar installations are soon to be reached. And by 2021, the US solar market is expected to surpass 100 cumulative GW, with an annual install rate of 20 GW or more.