<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1654625680968,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017e-cb38-dcae-a3fe-ff7ddb630000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1654625680968,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017e-cb38-dcae-a3fe-ff7ddb630000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_54625567", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1020805"} }); ","_id":"00000181-3f60-dfdd-a99b-bff633130000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedThe U.S. solar industry saw its lowest quarter for installations since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report.
The U.S. Solar Market Insight report, published Tuesday by the Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie, found that the solar market installed just 3.9 gigawatts of solar capacity in the first quarter of 2022, marking a 24% drop from the same period last year and a 52% decline since the last quarter of 2021.
PULLING THE EMERGENCY CORD ON SOLAR
The installation rates represent the weakest earnings for solar in the past two years, which the report’s authors blamed on price increases and supply chain constraints, as well as trade policy disruptions in the second half of 2021.
Utility-scale solar saw the sharpest decline in Q1, with installations dropping to their lowest point since 2019, the report found. Meanwhile, the commercial market also saw a 28% decrease from the previous quarter.
In addition to price increases and supply chain woes, the report also took aim at the anti-circumvention investigation initiated by the Commerce Department in March into solar imports from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. This action, the report said, worsened existing supply chain delays and caused most solar manufacturers to halt shipments to the United States.
In a press release announcing Tuesday’s report, SEIA President and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper praised President Joe Biden’s decision to use his emergency powers to boost U.S. solar production, saying that without this action, “massive project delay and cancellations would have continued throughout 2022,” further imperiling his administration’s clean energy agenda and efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
“The solar industry is facing multiple challenges that are slowing America’s clean energy progress, but this week’s action from the Biden administration provides a jolt of certainty businesses need to keep projects moving and create jobs,” Hopper said of Biden’s executive action, which the White House announced on Monday.
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“By acting decisively, this administration is breathing new life into the clean energy sector, while positioning the U.S. to be a global solar manufacturing leader,” she added.
