The U.S. solar industry installed 6.1 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity and had its best first quarter in history, according to the U.S. Solar Market Insight Second Quarter 2023 report released by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie. The record quarter was driven in large part by supply-chain challenges abating and delayed solar projects moving forward.
Due in part to the strong first-quarter numbers and a surge in demand from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Wood Mackenzie expects the solar market to triple in size during the next five years, bringing total installed solar capacity to 378 GW by 2028.
The IRA has also spurred a surge of new manufacturing announcements, with domestic module capacity expected to rise from fewer than nine GW today to more than 60 GW by 2026. At least 16 GW of module manufacturing facilities are under construction as of the end of first qua
