New Report: Lighting the Way

States with good solar policy are seeing a solar revolution – and that’s not just in sunny states like California, but also northern states like Massachusetts. The flipside is also true: States without good solar policy – like Florida, the Sunshine State – are seeing lackluster solar growth.

Gideon Weissman

Former Policy Analyst, Frontier Group

Today we released the third in our series of Lighting the Way reports, a look at the states with the most solar capacity per capita and the policies that help them get there.

The main takeaway? States with good solar policy are seeing a solar revolution – and that’s not just in sunny states like California, but also northern states like Massachusetts. The flipside is also true: States without good solar policy – like Florida, the Sunshine State – are seeing lackluster solar growth.

The country’s top 10 solar states – Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina and Vermont – all have adopted supportive policies that are propelling their solar industries forward: nine have strong net metering policies to give solar panel owners fair compensation for the electricity they feed back to the grid; nine have strong statewide interconnection policies, to reduce the time and hassle of connecting solar power systems to the grid; and all have renewable electricity standards.

These top 10 solar states are achieving levels of solar electricity generation that would have been unthinkable ten years ago. For example, California now obtains more than 5 percent of its electricity from its more than 10 gigawatts of solar capacity.

Two of the most exciting stories in this year’s report came from smaller states, Hawaii and Vermont. Both states not only moved up in the rankings (Hawaii to number one, and Vermont to number seven), they also doubled down on their solar futures. While both states already had good solar policies in place like net metering and good interconnection standards, in early 2015 Hawaii and Vermont passed the nation’s two strongest renewable energy standards and assured themselves of big solar growth in the years to come. Hawaii passed the nation’s first 100 percent renewable electricity standard. Vermont passed a 75 percent renewable electricity requirement with a 10 percent distributed generation carveout. Distributed generation means power produced at the point of consumption – usually solar panels – and thus the state has the highest rooftop solar standard in the country.

The stories were not all positive in 2014. Arizona slipped from its perch atop the rankings, due in part to increased charges imposed on solar customers – and threats of more increases to come. Though this was not a surprise – our 2013 report asked “Is Arizona Stepping Back from Solar Energy Leadership?” – it is a disappointment. While Arizona only fell to number two overall in terms of solar capacity per capita, it dropped from first to eighth in terms of solar capacity added per capita.

Also in 2014, some fairly new policy innovations contributed to the solar energy boom. For example, new policies that allow net metering credits to be spread out over multiple properties are giving more people – including those that don’t own their own house, or don’t have roof access – the ability to reap the savings and environmental benefits of solar energy. Minnesota’s 2013 community solar law, for example, paved the way for a flurry of new plans that should result in thousands more Minnesotans with solar power.

Solar energy is a no-brainer. It is emission free, reliable, immune to fossil fuel price fluctuations, and often cheaper than getting energy from the grid, particularly when incentives are considered. But so far, the majority of solar energy’s benefits have been concentrated in the top 10 states. With the connection between commonsense solar policy and booming solar markets more clear than ever, there is no excuse for the rest of the country to delay getting in on the act.

Download the report here.

Authors

Gideon Weissman

Former Policy Analyst, Frontier Group