Global Solar Industry Saved from 2017 Cliff-Edge as US Set to Extend Solar ITC

摘要

On December 18th, the U.S. Congress passed a bill that would see the solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC) extended by an additional five years, as part of a $1.15 trillion spending bill. In addition to an extension of the solar ITC, production tax credits for wind installations were also approved, in return for a removal of a 40-year long ban on oil exports from the United States. Analysis conducted by IHS Technology, a global energy analyst, prior to the extension of the ITC, forecasted that U.S. solar installations would reach nearly 17 gigawatts (GWdc) in 2016 driven by the rush from developers to finish projects ahead of the December deadline. This would then lead to a drop to just 6.5 GW in 2017. The impact on the global solar industry would have been huge. IHS previously predicted global installations would peak at 70 GW in 2016 - a 20 percent increase over 2015 and largely driven by the huge demand from the United States; however, the cliff-edge in demand facing the country at the end of 2016 would have led to a global decline of 10 percent in 2017, with installations falling back to 63 GW.