A report, “The U.S. Utility PV Market: Demand, Players, Strategy and Project Economics Through 2015,” stresses upon the importance of U.S. utilities in the future growth for the global PV industry. The report indicates that U.S utilities are claiming their position as the industry’s next critical demand center with state renewable portfolio standards (RPS) looming and global PV players shifting their sights from saturated European feed-in tariff markets to the large-scale potential of the U.S. PPA market.
Examining in detail the current state of the sector with an eye toward future development, supply, economic and regulatory conditions, the report considers utility procurement strategies, developer and supplier positioning, regulatory influence and project economics within utility territories.
“Utility PV in the U.S. is a $1 billion market in 2010 and is projected to reach $8 billion by 2015,” said Shayle Kann, the report’s author and GTM Research’s managing director of Solar Research, in a recent press release. “Solar industry players across the value chain have taken note, flocking to the market en masse to take advantage.”
Presently, U.S.-based First Solar holds more than 40 percent of all contracted PPA capacity in development nationwide. First Solar is followed by other U.S.-based developers SunPower, Sempra Generation, LS Power and SunEdison (News - Alert) combining for an additional 22 percent of contracted capacity. While these domestic developers represent first movers in the market, global players are looking for a foothold -- and employing a variety of strategies to achieve it.
“Foreign entrants like Iberdrola Renewables and juwi solar, with robust PV portfolios abroad, are parlaying their experience to earn utility market share stateside,” said Kann, in a press release. “In addition, PV manufacturers such as Sharp (News - Alert), Solyndra, and GCL Solar are seeking their own entry into the project development market, often as an opportunity to secure sales channels for their own products.”
Through the domestic U.S. utility market is quite vibrant, the sector is still nascent, with less than 250 MW currently operating and a number of challenges, like financing bottlenecks, U.S. Treasury cash grant and competitive PPA bidding processes, looming in the coming years.
Rahul Arora is a TMCnet contributor. He has worked as an editor and freelance writer for several reputed organizations in India. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Tammy Wolf
