Following trends along splitting paths

Is it possible for time to feel like it’s simultaneously ceased moving and blasting forward at unsustainable speeds? Three months ago, I completed my fifth year writing for Solar Power World, and part of me feels like I’m still that person in his mid-twenties just being introduced to the word “photovoltaic.” This is the longest I’ve ever worked anywhere, yet another part of me is still stuck in March 2020 and expecting this whole pandemic thing to run its course in a couple of weeks, even though just last week I had my latest COVID-19 vaccination. So, here I sit at my home office, writing an editorial introduction to the 36th SPW magazine in which I’ve contributed work.

Over half a decade, I’ve witnessed a series of ebbs and flows of momentum within this industry. The great fear plaguing U.S. solar when I first started at SPW was that the ITC wouldn’t be renewed at full capacity and national installation would suffer from it. Shortly after, steel tariffs were threatening to increase the cost of components like racking, the solar technology I primarily cover here at the magazine. Now, the Inflation Reduction Act has reinstated those project subsidies and tacked on bonus credits for domestic manufacturing and certain tracker components.

The point I’m trying to make is that in its decades of existence, the solar industry has lived what feels like many lifetimes. This work and this technology live and die by forces acting outside of their control. While U.S. solar installation capacity broke another annual record, residential contractors in the country’s largest state market are trying to stay in business. Where one segment is thriving another may falter, and momentum or roadblocks can alter this landscape in a matter of months.

Every January, we cover a series of trending topics that the industry is experiencing as we enter a new year and hope they are accurate indicators for what is to come. These are trends in the technology, policy and markets that shape this industry. While we aren’t the ones out there “slapping glass,” we do hope this magazine and website offer you some guidance as we start another year. We’ll be here to keep you up to date on anything worth knowing in the U.S. solar industry. And as always, thanks for reading. I hope I’m doing this for many, many more years.

Billy Ludt
Senior Editor
bludt@wtwhmedia.com
@SolarBillyL
@SolarPowerWorld