Looking back, 2013 was a huge year for the solar industry -- perhaps the biggest year so far. According to a report put together by  GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association® (results pictured in info graphic below), the U.S. solar industry encountered its largest quarter ever for residential installations. Also, we're on track to install more solar capacity than Germany for the first time in 15 years. In honor of our success this year as a nation, we decided to gather a few facts about the solar industry in the year 2013:

1. There is now 10,250 megawatts of solar energy in our nation, which is enough to power 1.7 million American homes. That is the equivalent of removing 2.1 million cars from the road or planting 262,500,000 trees.

2. The state of California more than doubled its rooftop solar installations from 2012 to 2013.

3. In 2001, there was one solar installation every 10 minutes. As you can see in the info graphic, there is now one every 4 minutes.

Source: GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association® (SEIA®)