U.S. adds 4.6GW of solar in Q3, down 17% YoY

On December 13, the Solar Energy Association of America (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie released the "U.S. Solar Energy Market Insights Report for the Fourth Quarter of 2022". %, the decline in data is mainly due to trade barriers and continued supply chain tensions, which continue to drag down the progress of clean energy in the United States; in addition, under the influence of this factor, it is expected that the annual solar installations in the United States in 2022 will drop by 23% compared with 2021.

Wood Mackenzie said that the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) has dragged down the recent solar installation plan in the United States and caused the incentive effect of the Reducing Inflation Act (IRA) to be greatly reduced. Separately, the recent decision by the U.S. Department of Commerce to impose anti-circumvention tariffs on solar products in Southeast Asia poses a downside risk to future solar deployments.

“America’s clean energy economy is being weighed down by its own trade measures,” said SEIA President and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper. “The solar and energy storage industries are taking aggressive action to establish legal supply chains, but solar supply and trade constraints prevent local manufacturers from producing quickly.

The utility-scale, commercial and community solar markets all experienced sequential declines in the third quarter due to supply chain constraints. Segments such as residential solar were less directly impacted, with 1.57GW of new installations, a 43% increase over Q3 2021.

"Installations have declined significantly this year due to supply chain constraints," said Michelle Davis, principal analyst and lead author of the report. "As it turned out, the evidence requested by UFLPA became increasingly difficult and time-consuming, further delaying the delivery of equipment to the United States."

Wood Mackenzie's forecast sees UFLPA limiting solar deployment until 2023 and dragging down IRA incentives in the short term. The report forecasts that 10.3GW of new utility-scale solar will be installed in 2022, a 40% drop from 2021 production. IRA-driven growth will begin to accelerate by 2024, with annual solar growth averaging 21% between 2023-2027.

Despite supply chain constraints on solar market growth, U.S. solar will account for the largest share of all new electricity additions at 45% through the third quarter of 2022, the report shows.

Source: SOLARZOOM