PHOTON International The Photovoltaic Magazine

US PV Roadmap would spread economic benefits across 50 states

Conventional thinking has it that a strong commitment to renewable energy in the US would create inter-regional winners and losers. The report titled Solar PV Development: Location of Economic Activity released in Jan. 2005 challenges that notion, finding that a large-scale effort to accelerate PV development would spread economic benefits across the country.


Good overview: A new study shows the economic benefits to the different US states if the goals of the US PV Roadmap were put into action.

The 37-page report from the Renewable Energy Policy Project (REPP), a foundation-supported group formed in 1995 to advance renewable energy technologies through policy research, maps the total economic stimulus that would come from implementation of the US Solar Energy Industry Association's (SEIA) PV Roadmap issued in the fall (see PI 12/2004, p. 32). The roadmap calls for new residential and commercial tax incentives, a threefold increase in yearly R&D, and a large boost in federal purchases of solar power equipment. According to the roadmap, these supports could help the US PV market grow from 340 MW of installed capacity by 2004 to 9,600 MW by 2015. (The executive summary of the report incorrectly states that the 9,600 MW goal should be reached in 20 years, but publishes the correct schedule on later pages.)

The REPP report, the bulk of which was carried out under contract with the Department of Energy, extrapolates the detailed manufacturing activities that would accompany the roadmap's estimated $27 billion investment in manufacturing and $7 billion in construction and installation. A main finding is that the job benefits would not be limited to states where most installations are projected to occur, although California and Texas would see the largest investments, at approximately $8.5 billion and $4.5 billion, respectively. Only six of the US states would receive less than $100 million in investment. In reaching these outcomes, the report breaks down a modern solar PV system into 14 separate component parts. It then integrates the market size and cost goals in the PV Industry Roadmap to identify companies with the technical potential to manufacture enough components for the national commitment envisioned.

Based on North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) codes for the 14 components, the report identifies 10,179 firms operating in one or more of the NAICS codes related to the manufacturing of PV components. These firms are spread over all 50 states. The end result is a complete map, showing where jobs and economic investment could occur throughout the United States – at least if Congress can rise to the goals of the PV Roadmap.

To download the study, go to:
www.repp.org