Despite the still struggling economy, 2010 was the breakout year for solar power.
Although North Carolina is one of the nation’s top solar states according to a report, another study found that the state could do a lot more to take advantage of renewable energy.
North Carolina has 30.7 megawatts of electricity available from solar power — enough to power more than 30,500 homes. Only eight states have more solar power available, according to the 2010 Solar Market Insight report from the Solar Energy Industries Association.
“States have really increased their support of solar,” said Monique Hanis, spokeswoman for the association. “The fastest growth is in those states that have additional policies that are pro-solar.”
In 2007, the N.C. General Assembly passed a bill requiring 12.5 percent of utility kilowatt-hour sales to come from renewable energy by 2021, making it one of the majority of states with similar standards.
Hanis said standards like these have pushed the demand for solar energy upward.
Compared to U.S. GDP growth of 2.8 percent, the country’s solar market grew 67 percent in value in 2010, according to the report.
But because of high costs for these types of energy, many power companies are not investing in generating their own solar power — they are buying it from other companies.
“We don’t do any solar power generation ourselves,” said Progress Energy spokesman Scott Sutton. “But we do have a number of solar incentive programs that offer to feed that into the grid whenever possible.”