“Solar in the US is at an exciting moment,” says US Solar Fund head of investor relations Whitney Voute in this video interview with ESG Clarity.
According to the Energy Information Administration, the US solar industry generated more than 3% of US electricity in 2020 and was forecast to generate more than 4% in 2021. Over the past decade, US solar energy installations seen an average annual growth rate of 42%.
Voute says this is due to increasing demand for clean energy coupled with the decreasing cost of solar. She adds there are also exciting opportunities around battery storage.
The current administration is also supportive. Under Biden’s leadership, the US rejoined the Paris Agreement on climate and set a goal of making the US power grid run on 100% clean energy by 2035. The US Department of Energy has said solar, as a critical component of the shift toward clean energy, could become 40% of US electricity by 2035. This leaves an enormous amount of demand for new development in the coming years, with 19.4 GWDC of utility-scale projects currently under construction.
