“PV is now positioned to take significant market share from other energy sources as it approaches grid parity in some regions.” said Craig Steens, President of NPD Solarbuzz.
Demand in the United States market has spread to many states beyond California, but in Canada, Ontario is 99% of the national market.
The primary driver in Ontario has been a feed-in tariff (FIT), while American states have been driven by a combination of policies and regulations at both state and federal levels. More recently, the US federal government played a critical role in the US solar marketplace, providing investment tax credits (ITC), cash grants, depreciation bonuses and loan guarantees as vehicles to make PV more financeable.
By the end of this Autumn, the federal government cumulatively awarded over $1.4 billion in cash grants for solar systems.