Utility-scale projects carried the U.S. photovoltaic (PV) industry to its second-best quarter on record, according to a new report released today by the Solar Energy Industries Association.

The report, which coincides with the kickoff of this week's Solar Power International 2012 event in Florida, shows that utility-scale PV projects accounted for 447 megawatts of the 742 megawatts of total PV installed in the second quarter.

The strength of the utility market -- which achieved its largest quarter in history during the second quarter -- helped make up for a flat residential market and a 33 percent decrease in the nonresidential market compared with the first quarter of the year. Today's report, which was prepared by GTM Research and is available on SEIA's website, notes that had the utility market remained flat, total installations would have declined 18 percent instead of growing by 45 percent.

"The growth in utility scale is greatly outweighing perhaps some of the difficulty that is being found in some of the other areas" of the industry, SEIA President Rhone Resch said last week (E&ENews PM, Sept. 4).

Today's report forecasts that 3,200 megawatts of PV will be installed in the United States this year, which would represent a 71 percent increase compared with 2011. That is a slightly less rosy assessment of the market than was predicted in SEIA's first-quarter report, which said that PV installations would "exceed 3,200 megawatts" and achieve a 75 percent growth rate.

From 2010 to 2011, the industry more than doubled the number of photovoltaic panels on homes, businesses and utility-scale arrays from 2010 to 2011. But today's report warns of slower growth in the future.

Market expansion is projected to hit 21 percent in 2013, and annual growth is projected stay in the 25 percent to 30 percent range through 2016.

SEIA has already attributed a drop in installations to the expiration of a key Treasury Department grant-in-lieu-of-tax-credit program that was not renewed at the end of last year despite a furious lobbying effort by the industry. Today's report warns that a further slowdown could take place in 2017 if the investment tax credit is allowed to expire.

The ITC, which covers 30 percent of eligible project costs, is in place through 2016 under current law.