Solar Is Gaining in Wind Markets as the PTC Steps Down

Over the years, top-ranking wind and solar markets have overlapped in just a few states. Where wind flourished, solar usually hung back, and vice versa. “Each of our technologies has largely had their own playpen,” said Anthony Logan, a North American wind analyst at energy and consulting company Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables.But now analysts say that’s changing. Dirt-cheap solar costs, record-setting growth and movement into new markets, plus the ability for solar to complement wind production, mean the technology is now encroaching on onshore wind’s territory. Solar is poised to grow by the highest percentage of any U.S. generation source in 2020, according to the federal U.S. Energy Information Administration. Wind will be close behind — EIA says it’ll show the largest percentage growth in 2019 and the second in 2020 — but solar prices are dropping enough that the resource is comparable and even cheaper than wind in some formerly wind-oriented markets.