Abstract
The US residential solar photovoltaic (PV) installation grew from fewer than 100 firms in 2000 to about 3000 firms by 2016. The rapid expansion of this emerging industry prompts questions about the installation industry's market structure, such as how market shares are distributed among installers and how interinstaller competition affects PV deployment. This article leverages a rich dataset to describe trends in the evolution of the US residential PV installation industry. The data show that most residential PV installers are relatively small companies, with about half of installers installing fewer than 5 systems. At the same time, a subset of high-volume installers have accumulated market share, especially from 2010 to 2016. Causes of this recent market concentration are explored, with an emphasis on the role of the emergence of alternative customer financing options in the United States.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 901-910 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue number | 11 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2018 |
NREL Publication Number
- NREL/JA-6A20-71337
Keywords
- installation
- market concentration
- market structure
- solar