The upcoming 2019, as the second largest US photovoltaic market in the world after China, has experienced a restless year. The photovoltaic + energy storage model has developed rapidly, and the trend of green power purchase by enterprises has strengthened. Once the United States releases photovoltaic trade protection, the cost of photovoltaic installation in the United States is expected to become the lowest in the world. At that time, the competition between China and the United States regarding the global leader in photovoltaics will surely be more exciting.

Last year, according to data from Wood Mackenzie Power & renewable and the Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA), the United States has accumulated more than 2 million solar projects, and installed a record number of civilian solar power. Several utility companies signed huge agreements and broke domestic price records for large solar facilities.

01 Photovoltaic energy storage in hand

In the United States, new installations of residential photovoltaic and energy storage equipment have both set a record in 2019. For the coming 2020, many installers are looking forward to a new boom.

The 2019 boom is also known by the industry as the "California Effect": Companies across the country believe that at least part of the demand is due to a power outage caused by the California fire.

This fall, Northern California utility Pacific Gas & Electric shut down hundreds of thousands of customers (i.e., millions) during the bankruptcy proceedings and negotiations over mountain fire liability during several rounds of power outages. PG & E hopes to use this strategy to prevent equipment from causing more fires, and the media have reported on the incident. David Bywater, chief executive of Vivint Solar, believes that widespread power outages in California this year have "reset" California market sales. The solar and energy storage industries have seized this opportunity to promote their products as backup power solutions.

In addition to California, companies in Georgia, Texas, and Florida have also stated that their customers are increasingly referring to the issue of resilience in discussions about solar energy + energy storage.

All these developments in the field of distributed solar + energy storage are accompanied by several major announcements about utility-scale solar and energy storage. On January 4, 2019, Hawaiian Power Company signed seven contracts involving a total of 262 MW of solar energy and 1048 MWh of energy storage capacity. Electricity prices for six of these contracts were the lowest in the state's history (the state's electricity and solar prices are higher than in the continental United States). In the continental United States, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power announced in July this year a record low of $ 40 per megawatt of solar and energy storage.

Tracking the new lows in prices and new highs in capacity for solar + storage projects is an endless process, but 2019 has identified a general trend that developers are increasingly combining solar and energy storage projects, There are both small household projects and utility-scale projects.

02 Procurement of the company is booming

As we all know, the renewable energy procurement of enterprises has become the main driving force for solar energy development. But in 2019, this trend has become more diversified, and corporate buyers have become increasingly enthusiastic about buying solar products across the country in different ways.

Texas is the largest corporate solar market, and this year the state announced a large-scale utility-scale corporate transaction of 2.1 GW, compared to a total of approximately 4.8 GW across the United States.

This year's corporate events helped Texas rise to the top of the utility-scale solar ranking, which has previously been occupied by California. Photovoltaic analysts predict that California will remain at the top of the list by 2024.

With more and more companies announcing their goal of 100% renewable energy, analysts don't expect this trend to cool. In August this year, Bloomberg New Energy Finance pointed out that 2019 is expected to break the global corporate procurement record set in 2018. In the United States, the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance announced that a new record has been set in 2019: the organization's purchases exceeded 7 GW, compared to 6.36 GW in 2018.

Photovoltaic analysts predict that by 2024, corporate purchases will account for a quarter of U.S. utility-scale solar transactions, and the U.S. growth cap will be much higher than it currently is.

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