Shining Cities 2020

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)

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.