California Solar Power Facts

How popular is solar power in California?

California is the undisputed titan in the solar power market. No other state in the U.S. has more solar capacity than California by a wide margin. While the total grid-connected photovoltaic capacity installed in California increased only by 7% from 2008 over 2009, California ranked first in the U.S. in installed solar capacity with 212 MW in 2009 claiming 49% of the national market. While California’s market share for annual installations slipped below 50%, solar markets are still growing strongly in California, they are just growing much faster in other states that have just begun to introduce state solar incentives. In addition, California led the nation in 2009 for installed solar power per person with 20.8 megawatts, a capacity that is almost five times the national average.

Why is solar power so popular in California?

In 2006, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the California Energy Commission started the Go Solar California! campaign with the goal of encouraging Californians to install 3,000 megawatts of solar energy systems on homes and businesses by the end of 2016. Pursuant to this campaign, the CPUC created the California Solar Initiative (CSI) to provide more than $2.167 billion in incentives over a 10-year period to state utilities to help promote the adoption of solar energy.

The program’s objective is for investor-owned utilities - Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), Southern California Edison (SCE), San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) – to provide 1,940 megawatts (MW) of solar capacity to California homes and businesses by 2017. In addition, CPUC created the New Solar Homes Partnership (NSHP), which provides approximately $400 million in financial incentives and other support to homebuilders, encouraging the construction of new, energy efficient solar homes with an aggregate solar capacity of 360 MW.

On top of all of this, in November of 2008, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed California Executive Order S-14-08 which requires “all retail sellers of electricity [to] serve 33 percent of their load with renewable energy by 2020.” Now California energy providers must diversify their energy production portfolio to include renewable energy, particularly solar power.

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