Household solar power is on the rise throughout the U.S., a new report shows, with installations in the third quarter of 2013 up 52 percent over the same period last year. Those installations generate a total of 930 megawatts of power, a 35 percent increase over third quarter 2012. The U.S. has likely surpassed Germany to
become the world’s leader in solar power generation, the report from GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association says. California leads the country in the number of installations, followed by Arizona and North Carolina. Residential solar power is still a small slice of the total solar power market, but it’s showing the strongest growth as household solar installation costs fell 9.7 percent over the past year. Of those costs, hardware expenses, including solar panels and transmission equipment, are steadily shrinking. But so-called “soft costs,” such as financing and labor, now account for 64 percent of the price of household solar power installations, according to new research from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.