In Spain, Italy and Germany PV and Concentrating Solar Power met 4-6% of demand, more than 10x as much as the United States.
The US Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) has released data on electricity generation in 2012, reporting a 139% increase in generation from large solar photovoltaic (PV) and concentrating solar power (CSP) plants to 4.34 TWh.
This is higher than earlier estimates of 3.28 TWh, but represents only 0.12% of demand in the nation. This figure also does not include behind-the-meter residential and commercial PV, which the EIA previously estimated at 6.74 TWh, which would bring PV and CSP to roughly 0.30% of demand.
The vast majority of electricity generated by large PV at 3.60 TWh came from independent power producers, with electric utilities contributing another 0.6 TWh.
With the exception of China, other large PV markets are well ahead of the United States by percentage electricity of demand met with solar. France produced 4 TWh from PV in 2012 and this met 0.8% of the nation’s electricity demand.
In Spain, Italy and Germany PV and CSP met 4-6% of demand, more than 10x as much as the United States.
Much of this PV is located in the states of California, New Jersey and other large markets, and these states get much more power from PV than the 0.30% figure. However, many US states have very small installed PV capacities and as such solar meets a negligible portion of electric demand.
