Obama Praises Solar Progress in State of the Union Speech

SEIA | News Release —
Citing its continued growth, President Obama once again has singled out solar energy in his annual State of the Union speech.

Afterward, Rhone Resch, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), released the following statement:

“Not only is solar a growing source of dependable energy for the United States, but it’s also a growing source of American pride. Every 2.5 minutes of every single day, the U.S. solar industry is helping to make America more energy independent by flipping the switch on another completed solar project. Today, we have an estimated 20 gigawatts (GW) of installed solar capacity nationwide, enough to effectively power nearly 4 million homes – or every single home in a state the size of Massachusetts or New Jersey – with another 20 GW in the pipeline over the next two years, benefitting both the economy and our endangered environment.

“On behalf of the 173,000 Americans who currently work in the U.S. solar industry – and the tens of millions of people who staunchly support it – we’d like to give our own ‘shout out’ to the effective and forward-looking public policies, such as the solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC), net energy metering (NEM) and renewable portfolio standards (RPS), which are helping to drive solar’s remarkable growth, while also helping to reduce energy costs for homeowners, businesses, schools and government buildings. We applaud President Obama for making the development of solar energy a top priority when he first took office six years ago – and for never abandoning his beliefs in the importance of clean energy to America’s future prosperity.”