Top US States for Percentage of Electricity from Solar

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Following up on two solar reports I published last night, we’ve got one more. Those two reports looked at 1) the top US states in terms of installed solar power per capita and then 2) the top US states in terms of installed solar power per capita in 2012 versus 2020. Finding data for the latter led me to data on solar energy’s contribution to each state’s electricity. So, this report ranks states according to the percentage of their electricity that comes from solar.

Interestingly, this ranking of solar power’s relative importance or success in each state has different results from the solar power per capita ranking. Whereas installed solar power per capita was led by Nevada, Hawaii, and California — #1, #2, and #3, respectively — this ranking based on percentage of electricity coming from solar was led by California, Massachusetts, and Nevada, respectively.

Aside from the clear news that California is solar king again in this ranking, notable takeaways are that some Northeastern states are indeed solar power leaders (Massachusetts is #2, Vermont is #4 in the ranking) and the Sunshine State is quite lame when it comes to solar power.

There are other nuggets too, but I think most interesting is seeing how the states do in this ranking versus the per-capita ranking — throughout the ranking, there are differences. So, let’s have a scroll below to examine how states did in both states. (If the table below does not show well for you on your phone or such, you can click here for a static image of the rankings.)

Ranking of US States by Percentage of Electricity from Solar and Solar Watts per Capita

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State	% of Electricity from Solar	Solar Watts per Capita
California	1	3
Massachusetts	2	9
Nevada	3	1
Vermont	4	6
Hawaii	5	2
Utah	6	7
Arizona	7	4
North Carolina	8	5
New Jersey	9	10
New Mexico	10	8
Maryland	11	19
Rhode Island	12	12
Idaho	13	11
Colorado	14	13
Delaware	15	23
Minnesota	16	14
Florida	17	17
Georgia	18	15
New York	19	24
Connecticut	20	18
Oregon	21	21
South Carolina	22	16
Texas	23	22
Virginia	24	25
Maine	25	29
New Hampshire	26	27
Missouri	27	34
Mississippi	28	26
Tennessee	29	32
Indiana	30	30
Wyoming	31	20
Arkansas	32	28
Ohio	33	41
Pennsylvania	34	35
Wisconsin	35	37
Alabama	36	44
Michigan	37	43
Washington	38	39
Montana	39	31
Iowa	40	33
Illinois	41	42
Louisiana	42	36
Nebraska	43	38
Kentucky	44	46
Kansas	45	40
Oklahoma	46	45
Alaska	47	47
West Virginia	48	48
South Dakota	49	49
North Dakota	50	50

Those stats come from the US Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). You can find more stats and fun facts about each state via that source. To close out this article, here are short bullet lists of top stats and facts SEIA provides for the 5 states that are leading in terms of percentage of electricity coming from solar energy, as well as charts of their annual solar power installations from 2010–2020:

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California

• Solar Installed (MW): 28,471.51
• National Ranking: 1st (1st in 2019)
• Enough Solar Installed to Power: 7,915,033 homes
• Percentage of State’s Electricity from Solar: 22.19%
• Solar Jobs: 74,255
• Solar Companies in State: 2,006 (341 Manufacturers, 951 Installers/Developers, 714 Others)
• Total Solar Investment in State: $68,148.93 million
• Prices have fallen 38% over the last 5 years

• Growth Projection and Ranking: 15,208 MW over the next 5 years (ranks 1st)
• Number Of Installations: 1,173,243

Massachusetts

• Solar Installed (MW): 2,849.47
• National Ranking: 8th (14th in 2019)
• Enough Solar Installed to Power: 489,397 homes
• Percentage of State’s Electricity from Solar: 17.38%
• Solar Jobs: 10,400
• Solar Companies in State: 419 (71 Manufacturers, 150 Installers/Developers, 198 Others)
• Total Solar Investment in State: $7,133.69 million
• Prices have fallen 38% over the last 5 years
• Growth Projection and Ranking: 1,418 MW over the next 5 years (ranks 20th)
• Number Of Installations: 106,772

Nevada

• Solar Installed (MW): 3,612.85
• National Ranking: 6th (10th in 2019)
• Enough Solar Installed to Power: 652,128 homes
• Percentage of State’s Electricity from Solar: 15.26%
• Solar Jobs: 7,000
• Solar Companies in State: 84 (12 Manufacturers, 39 Installers/Developers, 33 Others)
• Total Solar Investment in State: $7,185.55 million
• Prices have fallen 38% over the last 5 years

• Growth Projection and Ranking: 4,332 MW over the next 5 years (ranks 5th)
• Number Of Installations: 58,026

Vermont

• Solar Installed (MW): 358.22
• National Ranking: 25th (28th in 2019)
• Enough Solar Installed to Power: 66,236 homes
• Percentage of State’s Electricity from Solar: 15.26%
• Solar Jobs: 1,186
• Solar Companies in State: 60 (10 Manufacturers, 33 Installers/Developers, 17 Others)
• Total Solar Investment in State: $686.02 million
• Prices have fallen 38% over the last 5 years
• Growth Projection and Ranking: 251 MW over the next 5 years (ranks 44th)
• Number Of Installations: 8,648

Hawaii

• Solar Installed (MW): 1,361.94
• National Ranking: 15th (11th in 2019)
• Enough Solar Installed to Power: 335,627 homes
• Percentage of State’s Electricity from Solar: 14.27%
• Solar Jobs: 2,484
• Solar Companies in State: 94 (3 Manufacturers, 65 Installers/Developers, 26 Others)
• Total Solar Investment in State: $3,579.91 million
• Prices have fallen 38% over the last 5 years

• Growth Projection and Ranking: 1,356 MW over the next 5 years (ranks 22nd)
• Number Of Installations: 88,641

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Any further thoughts on these rankings or any of these states?

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