Solar panels at the Port of San Diego

Editor’s note: Not sure why this post got pulled back into the pending queue yesterday… apologies if you clicked through and got an error page.

In light of mid-October’s Solar Power International Conference, there is some great news about the industry.  The Solar Energy Industry Association  (SEIA) is reporting that solar power in the US will double in 2010.  They estimate that nearly 1,000 megawatts (which is 1 gigwatt) will be installed by the end of the year when factoring in all residential, commerical, and utility-scale systems.

Surprisingly this only accounts for 6% of the global solar market and the US still lags key countries like Germany, Spain and Japan in installed capacity.  Still, this news is encouraging and shows that Federal incentives and steadily decreasing equipment prices are helping the industry extend its reach.  Given this increase, solar power capacity has increased by 69% each year for the last decade.  Great news for the industry and our environment too.  Time to raise a glass, celebrate a little, and then get back to work spreading the solar word!

Kriss Bergethon is a solar expert and writer from Colorado.  Visit his site at Home Solar Power.

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Image credit: Port of San Diego at Flickr under a Creative Commons license