Solar developers installed over 17 gigawatts of solar generation capacity in 2022. 40 percent of that capacity was distributed throughout communities, rather than centralized on utility-owned solar farms. Distributed solar, which can be owned by individuals, small businesses, and public entities, is turning the electricity industry upside down as individuals choose to generate their own solar power. Many individuals who cannot go solar themselves now have the opportunity to subscribe to a community solar garden. These solar arrays offer the same electric bill stability and savings as rooftop solar, but operate remotely under a subscription model.
Read about California’s new community solar policy, which legislators passed in 2022.
The map below illustrates the saturation of each state’s distributed (non-utility-scale) solar market, relative to population, at the end of 2022. For the purposes of the map, community solar in Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, and New York is included as distributed solar. We added our own figures on state community solar capacity to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s figures on small-scale photovoltaic capacity by state. This sum was divided by state population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, resulting in a figure for distributed solar per capita (watts per person). The U.S. EIA does not collect data from Alabama.
Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have a distributed solar saturation of more than 100 watts per capita.
Are utilities blocking rooftop solar from the power grid? Read ILSR’s analysis of utility interconnection timelines and find out how more federal data collection from electric utilities and transmission operators could help advocates hold utilities accountable.
20 watts per capita is equivalent to rooftop solar on 1 out of every 125 households; 40 watts per capita is equivalent to 2 out of every 125 households; 100 watts per capita is equivalent to 1 out of every 25 households; 200 watts per capita is equivalent to 2 out of every 25 households; 300 watts per capita is equivalent to 3 out of every 25 households; and Hawai’i has the equivalent of rooftop solar on 1 out of every 5 households (given the national average of 2.6 persons per household and 6.5 kilowatt rooftop solar systems).
Here are the top states in order from most distributed solar per capita to least:
- Hawai’i: 544 watts per capita (783 megawatts of distributed solar)
- Massachusetts 402 watts per capita (2805 megawatts of distributed solar)
- California: 371 watts per capita (14,479 megawatts of distributed solar)
- Rhode Island: 334 watts per capita (366 megawatts of distributed solar)
- Arizona: 332 watts per capita (2,442 megawatts of distributed solar)
- New Jersey: 262 watts per capita (2,422 megawatts of distributed solar)
- Vermont: 253 watts per capita (164 megawatts of distributed solar)
- Nevada: 247 watts per capita (786 megawatts of distributed solar)
- Maine: 224 watts per capita (310 megawatts of distributed solar)
- Connecticut: 223 watts per capita (807 megawatts of distributed solar)
- New York: 201 watts per capita (3,950 megawatts of distributed solar)
- Minnesota: 185 watts per capita (1,057 megawatts of distributed solar)
- Maryland: 176 watts per capita (1,083 megawatts of distributed solar)
- Washington D.C.: 175 watts per capita (118 megawatts of distributed solar)
- Colorado: 172 watts per capita (1,002 megawatts of distributed solar)
- New Mexico: 153 watts per capita (324 megawatts of distributed solar)
- Utah: 139 watts per capita (471 megawatts of distributed solar)
- New Hampshire: 134 watts per capita (188 megawatts of distributed solar)
- Delaware: 114 watts per capita (117 megawatts of distributed solar)
Although California, Texas, Florida, and North Carolina have the largest overall solar markets (see below), Hawai’i, Massachusetts, California, and Rhode Island have the greatest distributed solar saturation, as measured in installed distributed solar capacity per capita. California, Arizona, Nevada, Massachusetts, and New Jersey all land in the top ten for both distributed solar saturation and total solar generation capacity.
These state solar markets changed the most since our 2021 update:
- Installed solar capacity in California, Texas, and Florida all grew by more than a gigawatt in 2022 (4.4, 3.3, and 2.6 gigawatts, respectively).
- Oklahoma, Montana, and Kentucky doubled or more than doubled their installed solar capacity with growth from 2022.
- Maine, Washington, Tennessee, Iowa, and Arkansas also saw rapid solar generation capacity expansion in 2021 (94, 88, 67, 65, and 64 percent growth, respectively).
21 states can now claim more than 1,000 megawatts of total solar capacity and 44 have more than 100 megawatts.
For more analysis on the growth of the U.S. power sector, read our latest quarterly update.
Community solar, supported by policy in 20 states and the District of Columbia, brings many of the benefits of solar power to those who have traditionally been left out. Community solar gardens — which are larger than residential solar installations, but smaller than utility-owned solar fields — are the most cost-effective size for solar and reduce electric bills for members of the community.
The following graphic highlights the seven community solar-enabling states — Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, and New York — that we are able to track at this time. The figures for community solar saturation are calculated by dividing installed community solar capacity by state population.
Total installed community solar capacity at the end of 2022:
- New York (1274 megawatts)
- Minnesota (863 megawatts)
- Massachusetts (796 megawatts)
- Illinois (181 megawatts)
- Colorado (130 megawatts)
- Maryland (82 megawatts)
- New Jersey (45 megawatts)
State policies like community solar are crucial in support of local decision-making and promoting the adoption of distributed solar. Additional essential policies include net metering, simplified interconnection rules, property assessed clean energy, a renewable portfolio standard carve-out for solar or distributed energy, and solar or solar-ready mandates for buildings. We track these policies and others in our Community Power Map.
ILSR’s State(s) of Distributed Solar analysis is updated annually. For a historical snapshot, explore our archived analyses of distributed solar by state in 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2016.
This article originally posted at ilsr.org. For timely updates, follow John Farrell on Twitter or get the Energy Democracy weekly update.
