Which California City Has the Most Solar Installed?

Because of the state’s leading renewable energy policies, California has the most installed solar PV in the US, and San Diego leads the state as the city with the most solar.

As of the third quarter in 2011, San Diego has 4,507 solar systems, totaling 36.7 megawatts (MW). The city doubled solar installations in the last two years.

Environment California says that actually ranks San Diego among the top 25 nations in the world, in its new statewide analysis, "California’s Solar Cities 2012: Leaders in the Race Toward a Clean Energy Future."

The report focuses on distributed solar PV installations that are on rooftops or near buildings, not utility-scale projects.

"San Diego’s #1 solar status is the result of innovative state and local policies aimed at growing the solar industry, such as the California Solar Initiative, which has provided clear, well-designed support for solar," says Andrew McAllister, director of policy and strategy at the California Center for Sustainable Energy, administrators of the initiative in San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) territory.

"Ten years ago, solar panels atop roofs were a rarity," say the report authors. "Today, solar is taking hold in cities across
the state, from coastal metropolises to agricultural and industrial hubs in the Central Valley. In the past two years alone, the solar industry has installed more than 5 MW of solar in 10 California 
cities."

Governor Jerry Brown is calling for a significant expansion of California’s rooftop solar market through his plan to install 12 GWs by 2020, a 12-fold increase.

California is home to about 3,000 solar companies employing over 25,000 people.

How to further increase solar penetration

The authors recommend that solar come standard on all new residential construction by 2020, and on non-residential buildings by 2030.

They also see the expansion of net metering and adoption of a strong feed-in-tariff as crucial new policies.

Here’s the report from Environment California Research & Policy Center: