Emerging Solar Photovoltaic Market Analysis

NREL analyzes innovative solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies as they become viable for the U.S. marketplace, including agrivoltaics, building-integrated photovoltaics, floating solar, and recapturing critical PV materials.

Agrivoltaics

Agrivoltaics pairs solar with agriculture, creating energy and providing space for crops, grazing, and native habitats under and between panels. NREL studies economic and ecological tradeoffs of agrivoltaic systems.

A farmer drives a tractor beneath a solar array with tilled dirt in the foreground.

Installer measuring solar shingles on a roof

A roofer installs roofing-integrated photovoltaic materials. Photo from GAF Energy

Building- or Roofing-Integrated Photovoltaics

Building-integrated photovoltaics refer to building materials for rooftops, awnings, windows, and other external surfaces that replace traditional materials and collect energy from the sun.

Learn more about roofing-integrated PV findings in Observations and Lessons Learned From Installing Residential Roofing-Integrated Photovoltaics, NREL Technical Report (2023).

Contact: Jeff Cook

The Canoe Brook FPV project, the largest in the United States at the time of completion at 8.9 MW, is located on a water storage reservoir in New Jersey. Photo by Prateek Joshi, NREL

Floating Solar

Floating solar PV (FPV) is the installation of solar arrays on bodies of water. Although FPV is in its early stages of deployment in the United States, the versatility, potential benefits, and resource potential have led to growing investment in recent years.

Learn more about NREL’s FPV findings in:

Floating Photovoltaic Technical Potential: A Novel Geospatial Approach on Federally Controlled Reservoirs in the United States, Solar Energy (2025)

AquaPV: Regulatory and Environmental Considerations for Floating Photovoltaics Projects Located on Federally Controlled Reservoirs in the United States, NREL Technical Report (2024).

Contact: Aaron Levine

An open bag showing solar panel junction boxes ready for shipping after removal during solar panel recycling at the SolarCycle facility in Odessa, Texas. Photo by Gregory Cooper, NREL

Recapturing Critical Materials Through Solar Panel Recycling

The rapid growth of the solar PV industry, like any large-scale manufacturing industry, has led to global environmental and supply chain concerns.

Developing a pathway to recapture critical materials from PV modules and designing solar panels with durability, reuse, recycling, and resource recovery in mind from the start could reduce waste and preserve resources.

Contact: Garvin Heath