By Alfred Acenas
Eagle News Service
HONOLULU (Eagle News) – The advocacy group Environment America released on Tuesday, April 19, its latest comprehensive survey of installed solar energy-gathering capacities and their rapid market growth among leading cities in the United States.
According to the report “Shining Cities 2022: The Top U.S. Cities for Solar Energy,” the top five leaders in installed solar PV capacity per capita for this year are all in the western half of the country. Honolulu, Hawaii came out on top followed by Las Vegas, Nevada; San Diego, California; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and San Jose, California.
As for total installed solar PV capacity, the top five cities are Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, Honolulu, and San Antonio, Texas.
Leading cities by region in the per capita category are Honolulu in the Pacific; Las Vegas among the Mountain states; Indianapolis, Indiana in the Northern Midwest; San Antonio in the Southern Midwest; Washington, D.C. in the South Atlantic; and Burlington, Vermont in the Northeast.
The survey tracked data through December 2021 and noted that the U.S. currently has 121.4 gigawatts of solar PV capacity installed, enough to power more than 23 million homes. The study also found that fifteen major U.S. cities recorded a tenfold increase in their solar capacity between 2014 and 2022.
The report further stated that the top nine U.S. cities for solar power combined have more solar installed than the entire country did 10 years ago.
“On the very first Earth Day, in 1970, solar power was in its infancy,” said Susan Rakov, chair of Environment America Research & Policy Center’s clean energy program. “The idea of affordably powering an average American home with free renewable energy from the sun was a pipe dream. But actions by governments, industry and consumers have transformed that pipe dream into reality. This report shows just how far our major cities have come toward tapping the immense power of the sun. Each of these ‘shining cities’ has helped to clean up our air and water and protect our climate; and that’s something to celebrate and build on, on Earth Day and every day.”
Included in the report are policy recommendations for local, state, and federal policymakers interested in supporting the continued growth of solar power.
(Eagle News Service)