{"id":18707,"date":"2012-01-24T19:45:01","date_gmt":"2012-01-25T03:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?p=18707"},"modified":"2018-02-01T23:43:29","modified_gmt":"2018-02-01T23:43:29","slug":"socal-shines-brightest-in-solar-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/01\/24\/socal-shines-brightest-in-solar-rankings\/","title":{"rendered":"SoCal Shines Brightest in Solar Rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bay Area likes to tout its clean, green reputation, but when it comes to installing solar, Southern California shines brightest. San Diego and Los Angeles lead the state in rooftop solar installations, according to a report released today<\/a> by Environment California’s Research & Policy Center.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Rooftop solar panels on a home in Oakland.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

San Jose comes in third with more than 2,700 rooftop installations, while San Francisco comes in fourth with more than 2,400 (though it\u2019s fifth in terms of overall capacity). San Diego leads with 4,500-plus installations producing almost 37 megawatts of electricity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the story with San Diego is that the city was an early and very consistent adopter of solar power,\u201d says Michelle Kinman, clean energy advocate with Environment California Research & Policy Center<\/a>. \u201cSan Diego also has a really well coordinated working relationship between the local elected officials, the utility, the solar industry and the advocacy community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several of the top cities on the list have doubled their solar capacity in just the last two years. In 2000, California had fewer than 1,000 rooftop installations. That\u2019s grown to 100,000 installations in 2011, which makes up more than one gigawatt of distributed energy. \u201cSolar is really taking hold,\u201d says Kinman. \u201cThe costs are coming down. We\u2019ve had solar policies at the state and local level for several years and they\u2019re proving themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

[module align=”right” width=”half” type=”aside”]
\nTop Rooftop Solar Cities in CA
\nthrough August 2011 <\/strong><\/p>\n

1. San Diego – 36,775 kW
\n2. Los Angeles – 36,174 kW
\n3. San Jose – 30,617 kW
\n4. Fresno – 22,444 kW
\n5. San Francisco – 16,731 kW
\n6. Bakersfield – 16,223 kW
\n7. Sacramento – 15,911 kW
\n8. Santa Rosa – 14,015 kW
\n9. Oakland – 9,860 kW
\n10. Chico – 9,490 kW [\/module]<\/p>\n

Kinman says they\u2019re seeing solar spread throughout the state to the \u201cagricultural and industrial hubs of the Central Valley. Solar power is really taking hold in both rural and urban areas across the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

The solar industry has certainly had a boost from rapidly falling prices on solar photovoltaic panels, which dropped a whopping 50% in 2011 alone. Industry analysts say prices could keep falling. According to GTM Research<\/a>, an oversupply of high purity silicon (a source material for solar panels) could drive down silicon prices this year<\/a>, which means manufacturers could sell panels for even less.<\/p>\n

Rooftop solar has also grown thanks to solar-leasing programs<\/a>, where consumers realize cost-savings immediately, instead of buying the solar system themselves. Solar leasing has surged in Southern California, according to a recent report<\/a> from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory<\/a>. It grew from 9% of residential solar installations during the first quarter of 2009 to 36% during the first quarter of 2011 (among projects tracked by the California Solar Initiative database).<\/p>\n

Solar leasing is also more popular with low-income households<\/a> and in neighborhoods with younger families, according to the report. NREL study author Easan Drury says leasing options have attracted new solar customers in different demographics and has shown to be an even bigger draw than cheaper solar panels.<\/p>\n

To maintain the growth in distributed solar, Kinman wants to see a lift on the net-metering cap for California utilities. Right now, utilities are only required to sign contracts with residential solar customers for up to 5% of their overall power load. She also supports a robust feed-in-tariff<\/a> program. \u201cFeed-in-tariffs have been used the world over and a really one of the most trusted policies for driving a solar market. \u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sunny Southland outshines them all with the most solar installed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":239,"featured_media":18805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[65,168,479,530,533],"coauthors":[],"series":[],"affiliates":[],"programs":[],"collections":[],"interests":[],"class_list":["post-18707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-power","tag-california","tag-distributed-power","tag-rooftop-solar","tag-solar","tag-solar-leasing"],"acf":{"template_type":"standard","featured_image_type":"standard","is_audio_post":false},"yoast_head":"\nSoCal Shines Brightest in Solar Rankings | Climate Watch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/01\/24\/socal-shines-brightest-in-solar-rankings\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SoCal Shines Brightest in Solar Rankings | Climate Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The sunny Southland outshines them all with the most solar installed.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/01\/24\/socal-shines-brightest-in-solar-rankings\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Climate Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-01-25T03:45:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-02-01T23:43:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.kqed.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2012\/01\/PV_Oakland2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"320\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"268\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lauren Sommer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lauren Sommer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/01\/24\/socal-shines-brightest-in-solar-rankings\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/01\/24\/socal-shines-brightest-in-solar-rankings\/\",\"name\":\"SoCal Shines Brightest in Solar Rankings | Climate Watch\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-01-25T03:45:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-02-01T23:43:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/2028303b891a88d762725b47b4b689ed\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/01\/24\/socal-shines-brightest-in-solar-rankings\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/01\/24\/socal-shines-brightest-in-solar-rankings\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/01\/24\/socal-shines-brightest-in-solar-rankings\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"SoCal Shines Brightest in Solar Rankings\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/\",\"name\":\"Climate Watch\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/2028303b891a88d762725b47b4b689ed\",\"name\":\"Lauren Sommer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/fb47fb7f6f643a79f68702c434e94f49\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/33aa3772bb86c6ad45b8aca6a238bbdf?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/33aa3772bb86c6ad45b8aca6a238bbdf?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Lauren Sommer\"},\"description\":\"Lauren is a radio reporter formerly covering environment, water, and energy for KQED Science. As part of her day job, she has scaled Sierra Nevada peaks, run from charging elephant seals, and desperately tried to get her sea legs - all in pursuit of good radio. Her work has appeared on Marketplace, Living on Earth, Science Friday and NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered. 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