Solar Market Forecasted to Grow to $78 Billion By 2015

Spain's solar industry may be about to fall apart, but the same can't be said for the U.S. solar market, which is expected to balloon from $9.8 billion today to $78.1 billion by 2015. During the same time period, solar investments will jump from $22.4 billion to $61.1 billion, according to a new report from Environmental Leader Insights.

The report lists some other encouraging statistics for the industry: global solar generation will increase from 17.0 billion kilowatt hours in 2010 to 95.0 billion kw/hour in 2015, and U.S. solar generation will increase from 4.4 billion kilowatt hours in 2010 to 15.3 billion kW/hour in 2015. And despite Spain's imminent loss of solar subsidies, European countries still have some good news to look forward to--market parity for solar is expected in parts of Spain by 2012 and in Germany by 2015.

Not everything is looking up. The German solar market could drop by 57% thanks to reductions in subsidies. That lack of subsidies may also affect the world market. But overall, we're encouraged by EL Insights' research--as long as the smart grid can keep pace with solar growth. If it doesn't, we might end up with a power grid that can't handle all the solar energy being tossed its way.

Ariel Schwartz can be reached on Twitter or by email.