April 25, 2007—The installation of solar photovoltaic (PV) devices in the US increased by about 33 percent in 2006 over the previous year, according to a new report from Solarbuzz, as reported by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
Worldwide PV installations totaled 1,744 megawatts (MW) in 2006, a new record and a growth of 19 percent over 2005. The US contributed just 8 percent of those installations, or about 140 MW, while Germany led the world market with 960 MW of PV installations, comprising 55 percent of the world’s total PV installations for 2006.
To supply that market, the global production of solar cells reached 2,204 MW in 2006, a growth of 33 percent over PV production in 2005, while the production of polysilicon–a critical ingredient for silicon solar cells–increased by 16 percent.
For more details about the report, visit the Solarbuzz Web site.
