Utility-scale solar installations—including both photovoltaic (PV) and thermal technologies—grew at an average rate of 72 per cent per year between 2010 and 2016, faster than any other generating technologies, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
Utility-scale solar generation now makes up about 2 per cent of all utility-scale electric generation.
The first utility-scale solar plants were installed in the mid-1980s, but more than half of the currently operating utility-scale solar capacity came online in the past two years.
