Solar energy is one of the fastest growing industries in the world, in large part due to the rapidly falling costs of photovoltaics. Under the US Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative, an objective has been set to reduce the cost of solar to 6 cents per kilowatt hour without incentives. Growing numbers of both private households and large corporations in the US are opting to deploy solar to power their homes, facilities, and businesses, creating huge growth in the US solar industry—as of January 2015, solar energy companies in the US employed a record high of 174,000 workers. Looking towards the future, critical objectives for the continued growth of solar include streamlining grid integration, developing energy storage and battery technologies, facilitating access to capital, and promoting a robust manufacturing sector that can keep pace with demand.
