Shining Cities 2020

The Top U.S. Cities for Solar Energy

What does the solar revolution look like in America's cities? Our seventh annual survey of solar energy in America’s biggest cities finds that solar energy is on the rise, and bringing big benefits -- and yet cities have only begun to tap their solar energy potential.

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Solar power is expanding rapidly. The United States now has 77.7 gigawatts (GW) of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity installed – more than enough to power one in every 10 homes in America. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have invested in solar energy and millions more are ready to join them.

America’s major cities have played a key role in the clean energy revolution and stand to reap tremendous benefits from solar energy. As population centers, they are major sources of electricity demand and, with millions of rooftops suitable for solar panels, they have the potential to be major sources of clean energy production as well.

Our seventh annual survey of solar energy in America’s biggest cities finds that the amount of solar power installed in just seven U.S. cities exceeds the amount installed in the entire United States at the end of 2010. Of the 57 cities surveyed in all seven editions of this report, almost 90 percent more than doubled their total installed solar PV capacity between 2013 and 2019.

To continue America’s progress toward renewable energy, cities, states and the federal government should adopt strong policies to make it easy for homeowners, businesses and utilities to “go solar.”

The cities with the most solar PV installed per resident are the “Solar Stars” – cities with 50 or more watts of solar PV capacity installed per capita. In 2013, only eight of the cities surveyed for this report had enough solar PV per capita to be ranked as “Solar Stars,” but now 26 cities have earned the title.

Figure ES-1. The number of “Solar Stars” (cities with >50W of solar PV per capita) in each edition of Shining Cities

Honolulu leads the United States for solar power per person among cities surveyed, followed by San Diego, Albuquerque and San Jose. All of the “Solar Stars” have experienced dramatic growth in solar energy and are setting the pace nationally for solar energy development.

Figure ES-2. Major U.S. cities by installed solar PV capacity per capita, end of 2019 (watts per person)

Photo by Staff | TPIN

Table ES-1. The “Solar Stars” (cities with 50 or more watts of solar PV per person, end of 2019)

Per capita rank City State Per capita solar PV (watts DC per person) Change in per capita rank 2018 – 2019 Total installed solar PV (MW DC) Total solar PV rank
1 Honolulu HI 840.88 0 292.12 3
2 San Diego CA 294.8 0 420.38 2
3 Albuquerque NM 273.19 7 153.04 8
4 San Jose CA 217.13 -1 223.67 7
5 Burlington VT 183.8 -1 7.88 39
6 San Antonio TX 166.08 6 254.47 5
7 Las Vegas NV 164.1 -2 105.79 10
8 Phoenix AZ 164.07 -2 272.4 4
9 Riverside CA 154.17 -1 50.89 17
10 Denver CO 145.95 -1 104.57 11
11 Salt Lake City UT 141.17 0 28.32 22
12 Indianapolis IN 141.01 -5 122.28 9
13 Washington DC 126.66 2 88.97 12
14 New Orleans LA 125.06 -1 48.9 18
15 Los Angeles CA 121.24 -1 483.8 1
16 Sacramento CA 112.82 1 57.37 15
17 Newark NJ 96.9 -1 27.33 24
18 Wilmington DE 81.65 9 5.77 47
19 Jacksonville FL 70.4 0 63.63 13
20 Hartford CT 69.8 3 8.56 38
21 Austin TX 64.14 1 61.84 14
22 San Francisco CA 62.11 -2 54.86 16
23 Portland OR 57.9 1 37.82 21
24 Charleston SC 55.52 -6 7.56 41
25 Boston MA 55.51 -4 38.56 20
26 Portland ME 54.75 -1 3.64 56

Almost 45 percent of the 57 cities surveyed in each edition of this report more than quadrupled their installed solar PV capacity from 2013 to 2019.

Los Angeles leads the nation in total installed solar PV capacity among all cities surveyed in this report, as it did from 2013 to 2015 and from 2017 to 2018, after briefly being topped by San Diego in 2016. Los Angeles has added over 215 MW of solar capacity since year-end 2016. (See Figure ES-3 and Table ES-2.)

Figure ES-3. Major U.S. cities by total installed solar PV capacity, end of 2019 (MW)

 

Table ES-2. Top 20 shining cities by total installed solar PV capacity, end of 2019

Total solar PV rank City State Total installed solar PV (MW DC) Rooftop solar PV potential on small buildings (MW)ǂ Population Per capita rank Per capita solar PV (watts DC per person)
1 Los Angeles CA 483.8 5,443.7 3,990,456 15 121.24
2 San Diego CA 420.38 2,218.8 1,425,976 2 294.8
3 Honolulu HI 292.12 N/A 347,397 1 840.88
4 Phoenix AZ 272.4 2,981.4 1,660,272 8 164.07
5 San Antonio TX 254.47 3,721.4 1,532,233 6 166.08
6 New York NY 244.78 1,276.6 8,398,748 37 29.14
7 San Jose CA 223.67 1,638.5 1,030,119 4 217.13
8 Albuquerque NM 153.04 1,252.3 560,218 3 273.19
9 Indianapolis IN 122.28 N/A 867,125 12 141.01
10 Las Vegas NV 105.79 946 644,644 7 164.1
11 Denver CO 104.57 677.4 716,492 10 145.95
12 Washington DC 88.97 343.9 702,455 13 126.66
13 Jacksonville FL 63.63 1,714.5 903,889 19 70.4
14 Austin TX 61.84 1,443 964,254 21 64.14
15 Sacramento CA 57.37 777.2 508,529 16 112.82
16 San Francisco CA 54.86 671.5 883,305 22 62.11
17 Riverside CA 50.89 612.1 330,063 9 154.17
18 New Orleans LA 48.9 1,276.6 391,006 14 125.06
19 Houston TX 42.53 4,604.7 2,325,502 44 18.29
20 Boston MA 38.56 340.8 694,583 25 55.51

Leading solar cities can be found in every region of the country. Leaders in per capita solar capacity by census region include Honolulu in the Pacific region, Albuquerque in the Mountain region, Indianapolis in the North Central region, San Antonio in the South Central region, Washington, D.C. in the South Atlantic region, and Burlington, Vermont, in the Northeast region.

Many smaller cities and towns are also going big on solar energy.

  • Las Cruces, New Mexico, had 10.4 MW of cumulative solar PV capacity installed as of the end of 2019, equivalent to 101 watts per person, making it a solar all-star.
  • Asheville, North Carolina, has 89.5 watts of solar capacity installed per person, enough to be ranked a “solar star.”
  • El Paso, Texas, has 50.5 MW of solar capacity, with installations on the city’s main library and municipal service center.

Fossil fuel interests and some utilities are working to slow the growth of distributed solar energy. Over the past few years, many states have considered or passed rollbacks to net metering – the critical practice of crediting solar energy customers for the excess energy they supply to the grid. Additionally, some states and utilities continue to target solar customers with special fees, charges and rate designs in order to reduce the appeal and financial promise of installing solar panels. These changes, such as imposing demand charges and other electric bill fees only on solar customers specifically, could cause solar panel owners to pay as much for electricity as other customers, even though they consume less electricity from the grid.

U.S. cities have only begun to tap their solar energy potential. Some of the cities in this report could generate hundreds of times more solar power than they do today. A National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) study estimated that building rooftops alone are technically capable of hosting 1,118 gigawatts – enough solar energy to cover the annual electricity needs of more than 130 million American homes. Cities can go even further by encouraging stand-alone utility-scale solar installations.

To take advantage of the nation’s vast solar energy potential and move America toward 100 percent renewable energy, city, state and federal governments should adopt a series of strong pro-solar policies.

Local governments should, among other things:

  • Establish goals for solar energy adoption and create road maps and programs to meet those goals.
  • Implement solar access ordinances to protect residents’ right to generate solar energy on their own property.
  • Make permitting, zoning and inspection processes easy, quick and affordable.
  • Expand access to solar energy to apartment dwellers, low-income residents, small businesses and nonprofits through community solar projects and third-party financing options, such as power purchase agreements (PPAs).
  • Implement policies that support energy storage, electric vehicle smart charging and microgrids.
  • Require new homes and buildings to be built with solar panels, or at least be constructed to be “solar-ready.”
  • Support and push for strong state-level solar policies.

State governments should, among other things:

  • Set or increase renewable energy targets for utilities to supply 100 percent of their electricity using renewable energy and adopt specific requirements for solar energy adoption.
  • Adopt and preserve strong statewide interconnection, net metering and virtual net metering policies.
  • Ensure that electric rate designs support, not punish, solar adoption.
  • Encourage solar energy installations through rebate programs, tax credits and financing programs such as low- or zero-interest loans, green bonds, and Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing.

The federal government should, among other things:

  • Continue and expand financing support for solar energy, particularly the Solar Investment Tax Credit, which provides a 26 percent tax credit for the cost of installing solar panels. The credit should be extended to apply to energy storage systems, such as stand-alone batteries.
  • Continue to support research to drive solar power innovations, such as the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office.
 
Errata: A previous version of this report included an incorrect version of Figure ES-2 and Figure 1 that mislabeled solar capacity per capita in some cities. The map has been corrected.
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Authors

Adrian Pforzheimer

Policy Analyst

Elizabeth Ridlington

Associate Director and Senior Policy Analyst, Frontier Group

Elizabeth Ridlington is associate director and senior policy analyst with Frontier Group. She focuses primarily on global warming, toxics, health care and clean vehicles, and has written dozens of reports on these and other subjects. Elizabeth graduated with honors from Harvard with a degree in government. She joined Frontier Group in 2002. She lives in Northern California with her son.

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