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US Solar Market Prospects Bright for 2021: 3 Stocks in Focus

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Over the past couple of years, the U.S. Solar market has been on a solid growth trajectory, buoyed by the nation’s attempts to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and make a transition to cleaner energy resources.

In 2021 and beyond, factors such as declining cost of solar projects as well as ample corporate investments along with supportive policies of the U.S. government are expected to boost the nation's solar market.

Factors Boosting U.S. Solar Market

In recent times, price of solar modules in the United States has plummeted significantly due to improved labor productivity, low supply chain costs and higher module efficiency. Notably, the improved module efficiency is driven by rapidly declining cost of installations using mono Passivated Emitter and Rear Contact (PERC) modules and bifacial mono PERC modules.

Such declining module prices along with technological innovation have brought down the overall price of solar projects. Evidently, per the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), the cost to install solar in the United States has dropped more than 70% over the last decade.

While declining costs of solar project installations have been luring in corporate investments, increased adoption of solar among utilities has been motivating big firms to fund this global energy transition process. Notably, tech giants, major retailers and other corporate leaders installed more than 1,280 megawatts (MW) of new commercial solar capacity in the United States in 2019, the second-largest year on record in terms of installations, according to the Solar Means Business report.

Moreover, strong federal policies like solar investment tax credit (ITC) have induced more growth in the U.S. solar industry. Per SEIA, residential and commercial solar ITC has helped the U.S. solar industry register average annual growth of 50% over the last decade alone.

Solar Market Growth Prospects Brighter in 2021

The United States expects to see an increase in capacity in 2021. During 2020, a majority of newly-financed solar projects got delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, these delayed projects are now expected to come online in 2021 and lead to a rebound in capacity. A few major solar projects in the United States slated to start in 2021 are the Pecan Prairie Solar Project and Sunflower Solar PV Farm by Canadian Solar's (CSIQ - Free Report) subsidiary, Recurrent Energy.

Per the latest forecast by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the utility-scale solar capacity in the United States is estimated to rise by 14 gigawatts (GW) in 2021. Meanwhile, Wood Mackenzie forecasts the installation of nearly 100 GW from 2021-2025 in the U.S. solar market, suggesting a 42% increase over the last five years.

3 Stocks in Focus

Considering the aforementioned projections, we can safely conclude that the U.S. solar industry will remain on its growth trajectory for the time being. So, let’s take a closer look at three stocks this industry that are poised to do well in 2021.

SunPower Corp. (SPWR - Free Report) : The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s 2021 earnings has risen 58.6% over the past 60 days, indicating annual growth of 328.3%. It currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Enphase Energy (ENPH - Free Report) : The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s 2021 earnings has risen 2.9% over the past 60 days and suggests annual growth of 42%. It currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Array Technologies (ARRY - Free Report) : The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s 2021 earnings has risen 2.8% over the past 30 days, calling for annual growth of 19.4%. It currently carries a Zacks Rank #3.

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