“This means that PVs are now rapidly becoming competitive with fossil fuels. Countries with higher electricity prices, such as Germany, Denmark, Italy, Spain and parts of Australia have already reached grid parity. Countries like Japan, France, Brazil or Turkey are expected to reach it by 2015. The Middle East and North Africa region is close to grid parity. In the United States, solar PV technology is expected to reach grid parity for some projects in 2014, while China could achieve it in most of its regions by 2015-16.

“CleanEdison expects about 36,600 people will be certified as technical employees in the U.S. solar industry in 2020, including positions such as installers, the New York-based provider of clean-energy training programs said today in a statement. That’s a 24 percent increase since 2010, compared with wind jobs, which are expected to grow 14 percent to 27,700.

“The U.S. is on pace to install as much solar power this year as it did in this century’s entire first decade: at least 2,500 megawatts, the equivalent of more than two nuclear-power plants. The U.S. added about 742 megawatts of solar capacity in the second quarter..

“Because there are no costs associated with the wind and sunshine, renewables have a generating margin of zero, as well as legally mandated priority access to the grid. As a result, fossil fuel-fired plants are generating for fewer hours and selling their power at cheaper prices, making them less profitable.