14 DAY TRIAL // Wind power might be king and queen of renewables in the United Kingdom but, as far as the United States is concerned, it would appear that the solar industry is the one sitting on the throne.
Thus, a new report shared with the public by specialists working with the Solar Energy Industries Association says that in 2013 the country's solar industry developed at a record rate.
More precisely, it would appear that last year the United States added 4,751 megawatts worth of new photovoltaic installations, Eco Watch tells us.
When compared to how many such installations the country set in place back in 2012, this represents an increase of 41%, the Solar Energy Industries Association writes in its report.
Apart from investing in photovoltaic installations, the United States was found to have also taken quite a liking to concentrating solar power systems.
For those unaware, these systems use mirrors or lenses to concentrate solar thermal energy onto a small area and produce electricity by harvesting the resulting heat.
Thus, the Solar Energy Industries Association says that, in 2013, some 410 megawatts worth of concentrating solar power came online across the entire United States' territory.
By the end of the year, the country was home to roughly 440,000 operating solar electric systems, the organization further details.
The generating capacity of photovoltaic installations amounted to an impressive 12,000 megawatts.
Concentrating solar power systems, on the other hand, were documented to have a combined power generation capacity of about 920 megawatts.
By the looks of it, the states that must be thanked for most of the United States' added solar capacity are California, Arizona, North Carolina, Massachusetts, and New Jersey.
Together, these five states are said to have accounted for approximately 81% of the total number of photovoltaic installations set in place across the country's territory in 2013.
Still, the Solar Energy Industries Association says that California was by far the greenest of the bunch, meaning that this state installed over 50% of the country's new solar capacity in said year.
In doing so, California managed to install more solar systems than the entire country did back in 2011.
North Carolina, Massachusetts, and Georgia also had a pretty good year, and set in place about twice as much solar capacity as they did in 2012. Otherwise put, they added 663 megawatts.
Specialists with the Solar Energy Industries Association expect that the solar market in the United States will continue to develop in 2014, and that the country will experience a 26% increase in the number of photovoltaic installations.
Although this growth is expected to occur in all segments, the residential market has high chances to be the leader in terms of helping the country shake off its dependence on fossil fuel.