Growth of US Solar Power Markets

According to a press release from the Mississippi Public Service Commission, Reuters has reported that Mississippi sits atop the list of the fastest growing solar markets in the United States for the period between the second quarter of 2016 and the second quarter of 2017.

The commission pointed out that in the last few years, it not only has approved nearly 300 megawatts of new utility-scale solar generation, but it also has passed a net metering rule, under which customers who install solar panels to power their homes or businesses may sell the excess output back to regulated utility systems.

The commission said that Reuters had related that despite the efforts of President Trump’s administration to revive the coal industry, challenge climate-change science, and critique renewable energy as expensive and too reliant on government subsidies, the solar power industry continues to expand across Trump country, fueled in part by falling development costs as well as the ongoing subsidies, which many Republicans in Congress still support.

The Reuters report relied on data provided by GTM Research, a clean energy market information firm, which data showed that eight of the 10 fastest growing U.S. solar markets in that 2016-2017 period were Western, Midwestern, or Southern states that voted for Trump, with Alabama and Mississippi heading the list. The Reuters report asserted that the data indicated that growth in the solar sector in the middle of the country is “offsetting its slowing growth in the maturing California and Northeast markets.”

Reuters noted that that change “marks a big shift for an industry that has historically relied on politically liberal coastal states where renewable energy development is mandated to combat air pollution and climate change.”