California installed 291,513 Photovoltaic (PV) systems while the rest of the country has 191,612 systems.

California Has More PV Systems Than The Rest Of The Us Combined

Contributed by | Fodop

 

Data from the Open PV project by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory shows some eye popping data about the dominance & lead of California in solar energy.  California installed 291,513 Photovoltaic (PV) systems while the rest of the country has 191,612 systems. California’s leads the rest of the country by nearly a 100,000 installed systems. The next highest state of Arizona with 49,498 PV systems has only 16% of California’s PV systems.

California’s lead in solar will continue to be extended when Gov. Jerry Brown signed an ambitious bill on Oct 7th 2015 that requires state utilities to get 50% of the energy needs from wind, solar & hydro by 2030. The bill (AB693) will dedicate $1 billion over ten years to install solar panels on multifamily affordable housing units & help lower income families switch to solar. The bill also has far reaching consequences for the solar job & employment market.  According to GTM research, the clean energy regulation provides a potential $8.6 billion investment for utility-scale solar projects. California Solar Energy Industries Association estimates that that the figure could go up to $10 billion.

Bloomberg reports that “The mandate for renewable power is a “huge win” for Californians and the state’s $11 billion solar industry, Sean Gallagher, the Solar Energy Industries Association’s vice president of state affairs, said in a statement. He said the future of small-scale rooftop solar will depend on a regulatory ruling on the ability of homeowners to sell power back to the grid.”

The latest bill is in addition to the 2013 energy storage mandate by California. San Jose Mercury reported  that:

State regulators with the California Public Utilities Commission, meeting in Redding, unanimously approved Commissioner Carla Peterman's groundbreaking proposal that requires PG&E, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric to expand their capacity to store electricity, including renewable energy generated from solar and wind. The state's three investor-owned utilities must collectively buy 1.3 gigawatts -- or 1,325 megawatts -- of energy storage capacity by the end of 2020. That is roughly enough energy to supply nearly 1 million homes. The 1.3 gigawatts is a capacity target, because different storage technologies have different rates at which they can accept and discharge energy, and the mandate aims to be technology-neutral. Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley who authored AB 2514, the law that put the PUC decision in motion said "There are times during the day when we are producing more electricity than we need, and other times when demand exceeds what is on the grid. This will help us avoid blackouts without having to build new generation."

All of these government policy & regulations explains the domineering lead that California has over the rest of the country combined.

The full rankings in PV capacity of each state & for the US are given below.

Rank

State

Count

Cost $/W

Capacity (MW)

#1

CA

291513

6.88

3713.84

#2

AZ

49498

5.45

1138.41

#3

NJ

34481

8.14

1505.98

#4

MA

24363

5.5

614.98

#5

NY

20786

6.06

285.82

#6

CT

10739

5.91

127.19

#7

PA

7182

6.45

187.9

#8

TX

5536

5.38

216.32

#9

MD

4389

6.56

121.75

#10

NM

3907

5.83

163.92

#11

NV

3669

5.83

263.81

#12

DE

3398

6.95

71.5

#13

CO

2600

5.79

135.12

#14

VT

2553

5.83

45.35

#15

HI

2324

6.52

26.81

#16

OR

2280

5.44

41.51

#17

FL

2217

7.26

115.18

#18

DC

1854

6.56

10.74

#19

NH

1788

4.9

11.89

#20

WI

1476

7.57

9.29

#21

MN

823

8.5

11.56

#22

ME

701

4.16

7

#23

UT

615

5.72

10.46

#24

IN

608

5.89

130

#25

TN

601

8.18

22.36

#26

IL

510

6.15

18.46

#27

LA

345

8.3

2.15

#28

MO

336

4.83

9.42

#29

OH

276

7.72

32.66

#30

MI

257

7.59

7.61

#31

WA

206

8.18

2.04

#32

WY

157

8.31

0.21

#33

IA

147

5.03

3.53

#34

AR

141

6.01

4.17

#35

RI

133

4.52

20.52

#36

SC

132

9.27

0.64

#37

WV

92

6.86

1.14

#38

NC

75

6.94

56.26

#39

MS

64

5.36

0.7

#40

MT

60

8.64

0.3

#41

GA

53

5.83

6.09

#42

VA

45

7.56

0.83

#43

ID

43

8.07

1.04

#44

AL

30

7.75

0.14

#45

KS

28

7.81

1.64

#46

KY

22

5.59

3.21

#47

AK

21

7.01

0.12

#48

NE

17

7.15

0.28

#49

SD

16

5.9

0.28

#50

OK

9

8.69

0.23

#51

PR

4

7.25

0.87

#52

ND

3

4.7

0.09

#53

OH

1

5.12

0

#54

Pa

1

3.96

0.03

 


 

About Fodop
Fodop
analyzes big data to see hard to find out patterns.

 

The content & opinions in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of AltEnergyMag

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