PV Panel Manufacturing Capacity Grows 4x Under Federal Incentives, Claims Report

Solar module manufacturing capacity in the United States now exceeds 31 GW, according to the U.S. Solar Market Insight Q3 2024 report, released by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie.

The report adds that this represents a nearly four-fold increase since the IRA became law in 2022, with federal clean energy policies continuing to drive manufacturing and deployment growth as the industry installed 9.4 GW of new generation capacity in this year’s Q2.

Since the IRA was enacted, the solar industry has added 75 GW of new capacity to the grid.

“The solar and storage industry is turning federal clean energy policies into action by rapidly creating jobs and powering economic growth in all 50 states, particularly in battleground states like Arizona, Nevada and Georgia,” says SEIA president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper. 

“We are now manufacturing historic amounts of solar energy in America, and soon, we will have enough domestic module production to supply nearly all U.S. demand for years to come.”

The report adds that Texas continues to lead the nation with 5.5 GW of solar capacity installed in the first half of 2024, while the residential solar market continued to contract in Q2 due to policy changes in California and high interest rates nationally. 

The sector added 1.1 GW of new capacity in Q2, its lowest quarter in nearly three years. However, the report expects the residential solar market to see growth again next year.