US connects 238MW of solar capacity to the grid in August

There were ten utility-scale solar power plants with a combined capacity of 238MW connected to the grid in the US in August, according the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

FERC’s Energy Infrastructure Update for August 2015, reported that in the first eight months of the year, there were 123 projects with a cumulative capacity of 1.03GW installed. Meanwhile, in the same period last year, the US installed 228 solar projects with a cumulative capacity of 1.75GW.

The US now has a total installed capacity of 13.08GW of solar, accounting for 1.13% of total energy capacity from all technologies in the country, claimed FERC.

However, Cory Honeyman, a senior solar analyst at the consulting firm GTM Research, told PV Tech that FERC's figures only capture a portion of the US solar market, since it does not account for most distributed generation solar projects.   

GTM tracking shows that in the first half of 2015 there were 18.5GW of installed solar capacity, made up of 17.2GW of PV and 1.3GW of CSP.

Incorporating GTM Research and Solar Energy Industry Association's figures, solar already accounts for 1.6% of cumulative operating capacity in the country, without even including solar installations that came online in July and August.