Energize Weekly, April 18, 2018
The installation of solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays is growing in cities across the country—especially in sunny ones, according a survey by the non-profit Colorado Environmental Policy Center.
“As of the end of 2017, 20 cities—representing just 0.1 percent of U.S. land area—accounted for over 4 percent of U.S. solar PV capacity,” the survey said. “These 20 cities have over 2 GW (gigawatts) of solar PV capacity—more solar power than the entire country had installed by the end of 2010.”
The leading cities for PV capacity are Los Angeles with 349 megawatts (MW); San Diego with 287 MW; Honolulu with 213 MW; Phoenix with 206 MW; and San Jose, Calif. With 196 MW.
The next six top ranking cities included San Antonio, Denver, Las Vegas and Albuquerque. Breaking the string of western and southwestern cities were New York City with 147 MW and Indianapolis with 117 MW.
The survey looked at 69 cities across the country. “America’s major cities have played a key role in the clean energy revolution and stand to reap tremendous benefits from solar energy,” the report said. “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 as well.”
In addition to total megawatts the survey analyzed capacity per capita, citing those cities with 50 watts or more as “Solar Stars.”
There were 18 Solar Stars led by Honolulu, San Diego, San Jose, Indianapolis and Burlington, Vt.
Cities just starting to develop PV resources include: Wichita, Kan., Louisville, Ky., Oklahoma City and Miami, according to the report.
Smaller cities are also making progress either local government programs or their municipal utilities, the survey said.
Athens, Georgia, for example began a bulk purchasing program “Solarize Athens” that more than tripled the residential solar energy capacity in five months. The city has 2 MW of PV capacity, the study said.
In 2017, Worcester, Ma. opened the largest municipally owned solar farm in New England on top of a former landfill. Worcester has 16 MW of solar PV capacity installed. It’s 87 watts per person also ranked it as a Solar Star.
The survey said, however, that there have been some challenges to the growth of rooftop solar by utilities and some legislators and regulators.
“During 2017 alone, 19 utilities in 10 states requested to add or increase electric bill charges for rooftop solar customers,” the survey said. “Over the past few years many states have considered or passed cuts to net metering – the critical practice of crediting solar energy customers for the excess energy they supply to the grid.”
In May 2017, for example, the state of Indiana passed a law gradually reducing the length of time that solar customers can participate in net metering, based on when they enrolled in the program. Net metering pays rooftop-solar owners for each kilowatt-hour they put on the grid.
In January 2018, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities approved the utility Eversource’s request to impose demand charges on its solar energy customers, including those in Boston.
