It is estimated that more than 34 GW of new solar capacity to be installed nationwide setting a record high for US utility solar installation.
As per the American Clean Power’s biannual Solar Market Report, the US solar market is anticipated to annually stretch out 37GW of new installations by 2029, thriving at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.6 percent from 2025 to 2030.
Moreover, the report highlights that dwindling of module prices fundamentally induces a 14% drop in capital costs on solar installations by 2035.
As per ACP’s prediction, in 2025 installations will downturn by 16 percent compared to 2024.
Furthermore, with a 16 percent increase in total installations in the US by 2030, the market is awaited to recover.
The upcoming US administration may work to “to change or remove certain portions of the IRA and accompanying guidance, but the IRA is unlikely to be completely undone”, the report says.
US data centers’ power procurement strategy will be favourably influenced by the advancement of solar markets. As per S&P report, by the end of Q3 2024, the US data center industry will have contracted not less than 50GW of renewable energy, among which, solar energy primarily accounting for 29GW of the overall clean energy.
A rapid growth is evident in US solar market over the past decade, where in comparison to 2014 the capacity was more than eight times.
This is manifested in data center hotspots like Virginia, where solar production skyrocketed from 1,584GWh to 6,072GWh in 2023.
Subsequently, solar supply agreements have been quested after by data center firms irrespective of their sizes. Google penned a purchase agreement with Engie to attain energy from the 350MW Chillingham solar project in Bell County, Texas, while Meta also signed a long-term PPA with rPlus Energies in Idaho.
