The Texas Solar PV Market: A Competitive Analysis
A report comparing Texas against five other leading solar PV states based on Clean Edge’s U.S. Clean Energy Leadership Index
The Texas Solar PV Market: A Competitive Analysis report aims to provide insight about solar PV energy in Texas, including market share, overall investments, R&D, job creation, policy landscape, and other key measures. Data and analysis contained in the following pages compares solar activity in Texas against five other leading solar PV states, and is built on research and analysis contained in Clean Edge’s U.S. Clean Energy Leadership Index. The report was commissioned by a private Clean Edge client.
Topics covered include:
- The Solar Landscape in Texas
- High Growth in U.S. Solar PV Deployment
- Solar Investment: Total Market Value, Venture Capital, and Job Creation
- Solar Innovation and R&D
- Solar Policy Landscape
The following are excerpts and highlights from The Texas Solar PV Market: A Competitive Analysis. To read the full report, please open the PDF file by clicking on the “Download” links.
Texas made it into the Top 10 states for solar PV installations in 2010, but just barely. Its 25.9 megawatts (MW) of installations put it in 10th place, far behind such solar leaders as #1 California (252 MW), #2 New Jersey (132.4 MW), and #3 Nevada (65.3 MW).
In this report we look closely at how Texas is competing against five of the top 10 states for solar PV leadership in the U.S.: California, New Jersey, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico.
Clean Edge analysis, including a comparative view of solar PV market size, venture data, patent data, policy implementation, and other key indicators, shows that Texas is in the game, but trailing by a significant margin against other top solar states. Texas may be in the race, but it is far from taking full advantage of its abundant solar resources and traditional energy industry expertise, managerial knowhow, research infrastructure, and economic resources. In fact, among the six states we reviewed, Texas came in last in four of the five technology and market indicators that we tracked for this report.
With its sprawling landscapes across the American Southwest and rich energy history, Texas would appear to be blessed with both a physical and business climate ideal for solar technology. But to capitalize on the significant financial rewards and job creation associated with solar leadership, Texas must leverage both public and private efforts to build a more conducive environment for capturing its share of the solar industry’s global expansion. As Germany has proven on the global stage, solar energy growth does not always follow the sun.