The Ongoing Rise of Solar Shows No Sign of Slowing in the Year Ahead

2018 may have been a year of relatively flat growth across the renewable energy sector, but that was largely considered to be good news by most experts. There were many reasons to think that the past year would see solar and other renewables lose some ground thanks to uncertainty surrounding tax and tariff news in late 2017 and early 2018.

Solar remained strong and is only looking to grow further in the year to come. Here’s a look at five things you need to know about solar in 2019.

1 – Lower Costs Will Drive Expanded Investment in Utility Scale Solar

Lower costs and increasing pressure from the public surrounding climate change and other issues related to conventional power generation will continue to drive expanded investment in large scale or “utility scale” solar. Additionally, advancements in power storage technology are driving utilities and large corporations into building their own solar power generation and storage facilities.

2 – Changes to Federal Tax Credits will Drive More Homeowners Into the Pipeline

The federal tax credit for solar is set to be reduced at the end of 2019 from 30% to 26%. This will naturally drive more consumers to act while they can to secure that extra four percent credit for their new solar power systems.

3 – Developers will Look to Add Solar to Large-Scale Projects in California and Elsewhere

Thanks to California’s “Solar Mandate,” real estate developers working on large scale projects in the state will be forced to build shared solar power generation facilities into their developments, or add rooftop solar to each of their new homes. And as California goes…so goes many other states.

4 – Adoption Trends on the Rise as Most Major States Have Moved Past the Early Adoption Stage

For the first few decades of the ongoing solar revolution, solar installers relied primarily on outliers, or early adopters of new technology willing to invest in solar in order to be ahead of the adoption curve. Those days are largely over.

As solar markets continue to mature in many states, we are entering the bell of the bell curve and larger and larger numbers of “ordinary citizens” are seeing the benefits of going solar and are willing to take the plunge now that the costs have come down significantly.

5 – Secondary Solar Market States Driving Growth in 2019 and Beyond

In 2019 and into the future, we will begin to see adoption rates continue to rise in states that were early to the table. And, while California will likely continue to dominate the rest of the states in terms of market share thanks to its sheer size, political climate, and environment, solar in other states will grow more rapidly than in California as that market continues to move into maturity.

The Future of Solar in 2019 and Beyond

The future of solar is very bright, though there remains a bit of uncertainty for solar installers thanks to advances in storage that are driving investment by big utilities and other corporations into the sector. In 2019 these big investments are likely to expand, but not enough to offset the general growth in rooftop solar installations.