North America Solar Photovoltaic (PV) - Market Share Analysis, Industry Trends & Statistics, Growth Forecasts (2026-2031)

The north america solar photovoltaic (PV) market size was valued at 247.25 gigawatt in 2025 and estimated to grow from 277.27 gigawatt in 2026 to reach 492.16 gigawatt by 2031, at a CAGR of 12.14% during the forecast period (2026-2031). This report is Segmented by Grid Type (On-Grid and Off-Grid), End-User (Utility-Scale, Commercial and Industrial, and Residential), and Geography (United States, Canada, and Mexico). The Market Sizes and Forecasts are Provided in Terms of Installed Capacity (GW).

North America Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Market Trends and Insights

Inflation Reduction Act Investment and Extended ITC Incentives

The 30% base ITC, extended through 2032, underpins project economics across the North America solar photovoltaic market. Developers may stack an additional 10 percentage points for domestic-content compliance and another 10 points for siting in former fossil-fuel communities, lifting the effective credit to 50% for qualifying projects. More than USD 50 billion in new U.S. manufacturing announcements since 2022 reflect this design, including a USD 1.45 billion Department of Energy loan commitment that will lift Qcells’ Georgia complex to 8.4 GW of fully integrated capacity. The domestic-content bonus requires 100% U.S.-sourced steel and at least 55% domestic product cost, prompting backward integration into polysilicon and wafer production. Low-income community adders are steering distributed generation toward historically underserved census tracts, supporting equitable adoption and broadening the residential addressable market.

Declining Levelized Cost of Energy for Utility-Scale Solar

Utility-scale solar’s unsubsidized levelized cost fell to USD 46 per MWh for 2024-vintage projects, and the ITC reduces that to USD 31 per MWh, under-pricing new gas combined-cycle capacity by roughly 20%. Module efficiencies above 24% for TOPCon and heterojunction designs, combined with single-axis trackers on 85% of new builds, are raising net capacity factors and lowering balance-of-system costs. Bifacial modules now represent more than 60% of U.S. procurement and add 5%-10% energy gain in high-albedo sites. Capital costs averaged USD 1.43 per WAC-watt in 2024, allowing developers in Texas and the Southwest to sign sub-USD 30 per MWh power-purchase agreements that displace coal retirements and defer gas peaker construction.

Interconnection and Transmission Bottlenecks

The regional interconnection queue topped 2,600 GW in 2024, with solar accounting for 1,086 GW, yet historically, only 15%-20% of queued capacity reaches operation. The median queue time stretched to 5 years, up from 2 years in 2015. Cluster studies mandated by FERC Order 2023 are designed to streamline reviews, but implementation lags have left developers carrying high-deposit exposures while waiting for study outcomes. In the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic, network-upgrade costs exceed USD 100 per kW, eroding project margins and steering sponsors toward distribution-level or off-grid solutions that bypass bulk-system constraints. Only 12% of U.S. transmission added since 2010 was built proactively ahead of generation, creating a structural bottleneck that defers 20-30 GW of otherwise viable capacity each year.

Other drivers and restraints analyzed in the detailed report include:

• Corporate PPA and Net-Zero Commitments
• Grid-Forming Inverter Adoption
• Rising Interest-Rate Driven Financing Costs

Segment Analysis

Off-grid systems posted the fastest growth, expanding at a 21.30% CAGR through 2031 as mines, farms, and telecom operators adopt hybrid solar-plus-storage designs to avoid interconnection delays. The North America solar photovoltaic market size for off-grid assets is projected to grow from a modest base to 30.52 GW by 2031, while on-grid installations maintain numerical dominance. Remote mining operations in Nevada, Arizona, and northern Canada are pairing 5-20 MW solar arrays with diesel gensets, cutting fuel consumption 40%-60% and trimming payback periods to 4-6 years. Agricultural producers in California’s Central Valley and Texas’s High Plains deployed more than 1,200 solar-powered irrigation systems in 2024, limiting peak-period demand charges that often top USD 20 per kW.

Momentum is reinforced by federal and provincial grant programs that subsidize up to 50% of capital costs for rural renewable installations. Telecommunications carriers, facing stricter uptime requirements, are fitting cell towers in hurricane-prone regions with 10-50 kW solar-storage kits, reducing diesel refueling trips during grid outages. As lithium-iron-phosphate battery prices dipped below USD 150 per kWh in 2024, microgrid controllers matured, enabling autonomous load balancing that keeps total system costs competitive with grid-extension alternatives. Although on-grid projects retain 96.12% of 2025 installed capacity, the off-grid cohort supplies higher margins and shorter development cycles, a combination that is drawing specialized financiers and EPC firms into the niche.

Complete Report Scope:

• By Grid Type
  • On-Grid
  • Off-Grid
• By End-User
  • Utility-Scale
  • Commercial and Industrial (C&I)
  • Residential
• By Geography
  • United States
  • Canada
  • Mexico
• By Component (Qualitative Analysis)
  • Solar Modules/Panels
  • Inverters (String, Central, Micro)
  • Mounting and Tracking Systems
  • Balance-of-System and Electricals
  • Energy Storage and Hybrid Integration

List of Companies Covered in this Report:

• First Solar, Inc.
• Canadian Solar Inc.
• Hanwha Q CELLS Co. Ltd.
• SunPower Corp.
• Sunrun Inc.
• Trina Solar Ltd.
• JinkoSolar Holding Co. Ltd.
• JA Solar Technology Co. Ltd.
• Maxeon Solar Technologies
• Tesla Inc. (Energy Generation)
• Enphase Energy Inc.
• SMA Solar Technology AG
• Nextracker Inc.
• Array Technologies Inc.
• Silfab Solar Inc.
• LONGi Green Energy Tech. Co. Ltd.
• GAF Energy LLC
• Silicon Ranch Corp.
• Brookfield Renewable Partners LP
• Soligent Distribution LLC

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support