Solar capacity has increased 99% since last quarter

The U.S. solar industry just experienced a quarter of record-breaking growth, with 4,143 megawatts of solar capacity added between July and September. That’s a 99 percent increase over the previous quarter, and a 191 percent increase over the same time period last year.

Those numbers come from a quarterly report issued by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and market analysis firm GTM Research. According to the report, an average of one new megawatt of solar generating capacity came online every 32 minutes between July and September. From the beginning of the year through September, new solar capacity represented 39 percent of all new electric generating capacity in the United States — second only to natural gas in terms of the share of new electric capacity.

Recent gains in the industry seem poised to continue: The report notes that the fourth quarter of the year is on pace to break the record-setting growth of the third quarter. Some of the boom can be attributed to uncertainty surrounding key federal tax credits supporting solar, which were set to expire in 2017. Companies looking to capitalize on these credits tried hard to push through solar projects in 2016 — but with Congress choosing to extend the tax credit, companies can now push some projects into 2017 or later.

And those gains, according to SEIA’s Kimbis, are likely to continue even after President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Trump has filled several top cabinet positions with people tied to the fossil fuel industry, and has promised to end federal spending on renewable energy research. But as long as federal tax credits for solar remain in place — something that passed with bipartisan support the last time it came up in Congress — the solar industry expects that market forces and state-level policies will have a larger effect on solar growth than federal policy.

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