Meet the top 7 US companies dominating the $17 billion solar-energy industry

First Solar

Solar energy is projected to become the No. 1 source of renewable power by 2050.

• Solar energy is on track to become the largest source of renewable energy in the US, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
• Chinese companies have long dominated parts of the US solar business. But several US-based companies are gaining ground in the $17 billion market.
• Business Insider compiled a list of the top US-based solar companies, all of which are public, ranked by market cap at the time of publication.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Solar energy isn't too impressive right now.

Last year, for example, solar arrays in the US generated less than 3% of the country's total electricity, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), putting solar well behind other renewables like wind and hydroelectric.

And the industry remains relatively small. As of 2018, it was worth an estimated $17 billion, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), which calculated that figure using data on the amount of solar energy that was built that year.

But as you look ahead, a different story starts to emerge.

In the next five years, total solar capacity is set to double. And by 2050, EIA projects that solar energy will account for nearly half of all renewable power generation in the US, or about 17% of all electricity.

The falling price of installing solar panels is helping propel the industry forward, with installation costs falling more than 70% in the last decade, per SEIA. In 2010, an average residential solar system was priced at $40,000, whereas today it's priced closer to $18,000.

"There's one thing to desire to transition, there's another to do it because it's the most economical choice," Ron Pernick, who runs the clean-energy stock indexing site, Clean Edge, said. "If you're looking to put in new generation capacity, and you're looking for the most economical sources for those electrons, that choice today is wind and solar."

A record year for corporate renewable energy buying has also helped fuel the growth of solar. And so have new policies in places like California, which passed a bill in 2018 requiring that all new homes come with solar energy.

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As the $17 billion US solar industry takes flight, it's hard to imagine the top players won't rise with it.

Many of the largest solar companies are rooted in China, such as Jinko Solar. In fact, experts say it was a manufacturing boom in China that contributed to the demise of American solar companies including Solyndra and SunEdison, because they couldn't compete with lower-cost imported panels.

But US companies have also begun to ascend, scoring massive returns in 2019, according to Pernick's indices, which include clean-energy and water companies listed on the Nasdaq.

In fact, three of the top five performers across all four of his indices were solar companies, with US-based Enphase in the top spot, seeing returns of over 450%.

What does 2020 have in store?

With earnings season in full swing, Business Insider compiled a list of the top solar companies headquartered in the US, ordered by the market value at the time of publication. They include residential installers in addition to panel manufacturers and power plant developers.