In the next five minutes, enough sunlight will shine upon the U.S. to satisfy America’s energy demands for an entire month. The solar industry is working to harness all of that carbon-free energy and create domestic jobs to move our country to a new, clean energy future.
Application
1 kilowatt-hour (kWh) = the amount of electricity required to burn a 100 watt light bulb for 10 hours.
A kilowatt hour is the typical way that electricity is measured.
A kilowatt (kW) is 1,000 watts, and a kilowatt hour refers to the use of a device or a set of devices that use 1,000 watts for an hour. Therefore, using a 100 watt light-bulb for 10 hours would equate to 1 kilowatt hour, as would the use of a 10,000 watt machine for 6 minutes.
A Megawatt (MW) is 1,000,000 Watts; a Gigawatt (GW) is 1000 Megawatts.
One megawatt of solar PV capacity can power 150 to 250 homes.
An average U.S. household uses 830 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity per month.
A 1-kilowatt Home Solar System:
takes about 1-2 days to install and costs around $10,000, (excluding incentives).
consists of about 10-12 solar panels and requires about 100 square feet of installation area.
will generate approximately 1,600 kilowatt hours per year in a sunny climate (receiving 5.5 hours of sunshine per day) and approximately 750 kilowatt hours per year in a cloudy climate (receiving 2.5 hours of sunshine per day).
will prevent approximately 170 lbs. of coal from being burned, 300 lbs of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere and 105 gallons of water from being consumed each month!
During its projected 28 years of clean energy production, a rooftop solar energy system will avoid conventional electrical plant emissions of more than half a ton of sulfur dioxide, one-third a ton of nitrogen oxides, and 100 tons of carbon dioxide. Solar electricity is clearly a wise energy investment with great environmental benefits!”
Solar Jobs Growing domestic employment – The industry is on track to create high quality US Solar Jobs by 2015 in manufacturing, engineering, and construction, many in small businesses. Watt for Watt, PV employs more labor than any other energy industry. And because PV can be installed in all 50 states, it can create jobs in all 50 states.
The solar industry is growing jobs while producing carbon-free energy.
Every megawatt of solar manufactured in the U.S. employs 14 people for a year.
Every megawatt of solar installed in the U.S. employs 10 people for a year.
Every 10 megawatts of solar kept in service employs 3 people for a year.
Solar energy will create more than 60,000 jobs, install a gigawatt of solar power and avoid more than 1 million tons of carbon emissions in 2009 alone. These figures will more than double in 2010.
Global spending on solar power is expected to grow from $29 billion this year to $70 billion in 2013, according to Lux Research, Inc.
Global Overview: The Global PV Challenge to the US
Global PV market has averaged 35% annual growth over the last 5 years, while the US market has grown at only 8% annually.
PV still accounts for a small percentage of electricity generation worldwide and less than 1/10th of 1% in the US.
The US lags behind Germany and Japan in installations as well as in manufacturing. Germany and Japan have surged to the lead with coherent, long-term national incentive policies, despite dramatically inferior amounts of sunshine.
The US possesses the best solar resources in the world, and yet Germany installs 8 times as much PV as the US. Germany and Japan have taken the lead in solar manufacturing and installations because of long-term national incentive policies designed to make solar power mainstream.
Europe accounted for 82% of world demand in 2008. Spain's 285% growth pushed Germany into second place in the market ranking, while the US advanced to number three. Rapid growth in Korea allowed it to become the fourth largest market, closely followed by Italy and Japan. World solar photovoltaic (PV) market installations reached a record high of 5.95 gigawatts (GW) in 2008, representing growth of 110% over the previous year.
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