The White House Tuesday 7th of July announced an array of new measures to extend access to the most rapidly growing source of U.S. energy especially “solar” to a much broader group of Americans, including low-income communities and individuals who rent, rather than owning their own homes. That includes a new initiative to increase the so-called “community solar” projects across the country in which one solar installation supplies energy to multiple different homes or individuals with a focus on serving low and middle income Americans. GTM Research “green tech media” has identified community solar as the next largest solar growth market in the United States. In the research, it forecasts the market to grow fivefold this year, with 115 megawatts installed, and over the next two years, community solar in the U.S. is poised to see its market size increase sevenfold, and by 2020, GTM Research expects U.S. community solar to be a half-gigawatt annual market. As community solar transforms into an increasingly mainstream segment within the U.S. solar market, drivers of growth are evolving rapidly. In this new report, GTM Research outlines leading and emerging state opportunities for community solar, profiles developers leading the community solar charge, and explores all the risks, factors, and business models that shape community solar today and in the years to come. With 66 cumulative megawatts installed through the end of 2014, the U.S. community solar market is just getting off the ground. However, GTM Research has pegged it as the most significant solar growth market for the United States. Between 2014 and 2020, GTM Research expects U.S. community solar to have a compound annual growth rate of 59 percent. According to the report, there are 24 states with at least one community solar project on-line, and 20 states have or are in the process of enacting community solar legislation. However, it’s four states, California, Colorado, Massachusetts and Minnesota, that will install the majority of community solar over the next two years. In the near term, these four state markets will serve as the core drivers of demand, fueling more than 80 percent of installations over the next two years. Today, two companies, Clean Energy Collective and SunShare, together account for 32 percent of operating community solar capacity, as well as 29 developers that are actively working on community solar projects. However, GTM Research expects a wave of market entry and expansion over the next five years, as rooftop solar companies including NRG, SunEdison, and SolarCity build out their community solar efforts. The next five years will see the U.S. community solar market add an impressive 1.8 gigawatts, compared to just 66 megawatts through the end of 2014. And with putting more solar panels on their roofs than ever before; yet only a small group of people homeowners, are driving the boom. Apartment dwellers, cash-strapped families, renters and others are largely shut out of the solar movement, sidelined by financial and technical constraints. But a tiny but growing segment of the broader U.S. solar market is the shared solar arrays. As demand for cleaner and cheaper energy rises, more residents are finding alternative ways to access renewable energy even when they don’t own homes. Such projects are critical for accelerating the overall use of lower-carbon energy, analysts say. More than three-quarters of U.S. homeowners can’t put up panels because their roofs are positioned wrong or the costs are too high. And even fewer renters, public-housing residents or condo owners can go solar due to building restrictions. Cory Honeyman, a senior analyst covering U.S. solar markets at GTM Research in Boston pointed that “Looking ahead to 2020, community solar is one of the next largest growth market opportunities in the broader U.S. solar market”. And added “the community solar opportunity is poised to become more geographically diversified, as developers ramp up service offerings to utilities in states without community solar legislation in place and as national rooftop solar companies enter the community solar scene”.
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