Solar News Has Been Much Sunnier Of Late
Although the recent scandal in Washington has been dominating the solar news cycle for the last couple of weeks there has been a flood of welcome news in recent months. Overall the price of installing solar panel systems on either a home or a business has been drastically reduced thanks to a fairly broad spectrum of causes. At the same time, billionaire Richard Branson has announced the formation of a PACE Commercial Consortium to flood two key markets with $650 million in contracts for local projects.
All in all it has been a very good quarter for solar panel consumers, scandals aside. The cost of installing a new solar panel system in the United States has dropped approximately 11% in 2011, on top of another 17% in 2010, and locating financing and government grants has never been easier. The Federal Renewable Energy Grants are currently offering a 30% payment for 2011, and accelerated depreciation has a 100% bonus depreciation for the year as well. Other noteworthy solar news mentions that increased production of solar panels from factories in China have flooded European and American markets with inexpensive solar panels, even more of which are being diverted back to the United States thanks to decreased financing in Europe.
As a result of these combined factors the United States can expect to see a spike in solar production and business over the next year that should boost the prevalence of renewable energy. Between the PACE Commercial Consortium creating $2.3 billion in economic activity and the constantly dropping prices to install new systems, the solar power market should have sunny futures for quite some time to come.
