US community solar deployment is expected to more than double over the next five years despite 2022 seeing a 16% decline year-on-year, as the sector is set to see benefits from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) taking hold.
The US government has announced plans to enable states and non-profit entities to apply for US$27 billion in funding, financing projects that can help combat climate change.
US PV incentives should be entirely focused on solar cell manufacturing in the short term, with maximum incentive rates given to domestic solar cell production that ultimately has a risk-free supply chain of materials and equipment, writes Finlay Colville, head of research at PV Tech.
In the six months since the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed into law, the US has seen over 100,000 new clean energy jobs created across 31 states as companies begin to capitalise on the incentives and security that the bill offers.
CubicPV, a US solar manufacturer backed by Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures, is looking to leverage support included in the country’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to set up what it claims will be the largest PV wafer manufacturing facility outside of China.
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is set to boost investment into US renewable energy deployment and manufacturing from US$64 billion in 2022 to US$114 billion by 2031, according to research from Wood Mackenzie, though a mismatch between solar deployment demand and domestic manufacturing capacity may see the sector’s domestic profile lag behind.
Following months of discussion and encouragement from the European solar industry, the EU has announced a multi-pronged scheme to drive renewable energy and clean technology development, with the aim of putting the European market at the forefront of the global energy transition.
