2017 Year-End Update
Energy production from renewable sources continues to expand
in the U.S. at a rapid clip, thanks in no small part to the substantial growth
of solar energy—and distributed
solar in particular—in recent years. More states than ever are making solar
a priority. But where have these gains been greatest, and what are the economic
implications for residents from one state to the next?
States with policies supporting a larger proportion of
distributed energy from small-scale, often locally owned solar, give their
residents and businesses big energy savings and their local economies an
economic boost, more so than when solar investments are left to incumbent,
often investor-owned utilities.
An updated map of the size of each state’s solar market (in
yellow, orange, and red) and pie charts showing the corresponding share of
distributed solar (1 megawatt and smaller) illustrates how this state-by-state
landscape has changed since our original
analysis published in 2016.
Total Solar and Percent Distributed by State – 2017
A majority of states—32 to be exact—now boast at least 100
megawatts of solar power in their energy mix, up from only 20 states two years
ago. Even with this expansion, similar regional patterns in the state-by-state
landscape remain:
In the Southwest and along the west coast, abundant
sunshine and availability of space continue to deploy large amounts of
utility-scale solar in states including Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas, while
other states in the region including California, Oregon, and Arizona, have had
greater success in balancing that utility-scale growth with distributed solar.
In the Southeast and along the Gulf Coast in
states including Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, lackluster growth in total
solar has continued despite readily available sunshine, as incumbent monopoly
utilities continue to hinder its development. Few states in this region have
large solar markets, with the exception of North Carolina, where utility-scale
solar dominates as a result of long-term
contracts the state’s monopoly utility Duke Energy has made with third party
solar developers, who have been able to offer competitive prices to the
utility but are not currently authorized to sell electricity directly to
customers.
In the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and to a lesser extent
the Midwest, many states have seen relatively strong growth in their solar
markets and, as a whole, larger than average shares of distributed generation
than other regions. Growth has occurred in these regions, despite comparably
less sunshine than the country’s sunbelt.
Of the nine states that each contribute more than 1,000
megawatts of solar power, three boast shares of distributed generation greater
than 50 percent and all three happen to cluster in the Northeast: New
Jersey (1,926 megawatts of total solar, with 66 percent from small-scale sources), Massachusetts (1,810 megawatts, also with 66 percent from
small-scale), and New York (1,135 megawatts of total solar), where a
whopping 87 percent of total solar has been invested in small-scale,
distributed sources.
When one accounts for
the mix of state-level policies that help or hinder distributed solar,
factors underlying these statistics become even clearer. In recent years, New
Jersey, Mass., and New York, the three leaders in distributed solar, have
each expanded policies, such as net metering and power
purchase agreements, that are favorable to distributed generation,
while keeping
attacks from their incumbent, monopoly utilities at bay.
Even in states that have not yet claimed a majority of solar
power from distributed sources, there are still examples of important policy
shifts that can increase the rate of growth in distributed generation moving
forward. For example, in California, the nation’s leader in solar power
capacity (with nearly 16,000 megawatts, 41 percent of which from small-scale
sources), recently passed a landmark solar
homes rule that will couple distributed solar with all new home
construction, when it takes effect in early 2020. Meanwhile, Minnesota has
pursued a different tactic to keeping generation local, broadening access to
solar energy beyond those who own homes through the nation’s leading community solar
program.
Over time, these and other state policy strategies that
prioritize distributed generation in their solar and energy markets will work
to the benefit of residents, particularly as small-scale solar pays off and
brings more
substantial local benefits than its utility-scale
alternative.
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