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The U.S. solar market continued its record-setting pace in the second quarter, but amid the boom are signs of a slow down in the break-neck growth of recent years, according to a report released Monday.
Photovoltaic installations jumped 45% over the first quarter to 742 megawatts, a 116% spike from the the second quarter of 2011.
More than half of the installations in the second quarter, though, were from big power plants built to supply electricity to utilities.
"On the surface, this would seem to indicate that the U.S. market is headed for a third consecutive year of triple-digit growth," wrote the authors of the report, a collaboration between GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association. "However, it is likely that annual growth rates in the second half of the year will be significantly lower."
The report projects that the U.S. solar market will grow 71% to 3,200 megawatts by the end of 2012.
The increase in so-called utility-scale installations masked relatively flat growth in residential rooftop solar and a fall-off in commercial installations.
"For the fifth consecutive quarter, the U.S. residential PV market grew incrementally. In Q2, the residential market grew by less than one megawatt overall," the reported stated, noting that installations grew 5% in California, the nation's largest solar market.
But commercial installations fell 45% in California and 35% in New Jersey, another leading solar state.
The report's authors attributed the plunge in commercial solar in part to a rush to complete projects in the first quarter to take advantage of an expiring federal cash grant incentive program for solar.
"The volume of utility installations is booming, but new utility procurement has slowed down, leaving some earlier-stage projects in limbo as developers turn their attention to more promising prospects," according to the report.
