Solar power has no doubt grew at a record breaking pace since…just last year! America, now has enough solar capacity to power over 5.4 million homes around the country. Hundreds of thousands in our United States have invested in solar and over a million are ready to join them. The major cities around our country have played a huge role in the sustainable energy revolution. The cities are the major source for in demand electricity and have the potential to influence other smaller cities around the country to join the revolution. So which city is to top solar city?
No other than, yes, you guessed it – our hometown Los Angeles! Los Angeles is the #1 ranked solar PV city in the nation. At the end of 2015, L.A. has installed 215 Mega Watts (DC) of solar power. That’s 26MW more than, yes, you guessed it again, it’s neighbor San Diego.
Overall, the top 64 cities in total have installed more than 1700MW of Solar PV Systems. What makes LA the best solar city? Well, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, it has enough real estate to generate hundreds of times more solar energy than what it currently produces. That means that LA Solar Group will be in business for a very, very long time!
What constitutes a city to be such a fantastic solar city? Climate and amount of sunshine of course. But primarily it’s the public policy that’s driving the market. Incentives offered by the city, state, and government level. Such incentives to go solar impacts the industry and fuels further growth for solar energy. Also, attractive solar financing and quick and hassle free solar installation attracts more to want to make the switch. Include rising electricity costs on behalf of the utility company, no wonder Southern California is the most solar powered region in the America!
With every solar city adding more and more solar power, America as a county gets to become that much heathier. Less air pollution and carbon emission, economic gains, and just fighting global warming, the solar revolution has a very bright future ahead. Take this example, from November 2014 to November 2015 solar energy offset close to 24 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. That equals taking more than 5 million cars off the highways!
It’s not just home owners and solar farms that begun to take advantage of what solar can provide. City and government buildings have also join in the solar revolution and have taken steps to incorporate solar energy to their local infrastructure such as improving the grid and the community around them. Also, mandated incentives and program such as the NEM programs encourages those who wish to be energy independent the opportunity to do so.
If you’ve already gone solar, go ahead and congratulate yourself on making LA a cleaner and affordable city to live in. If you’re considering to go solar, think about how fortunate you are to live in Los Angeles, a city that gets 3000 hours of sunshine per year and leveraging the special savings and programs that our state and federal government currently provides. And if you, haven’t thought about going solar, wonder how awesome it would be to be generate your own energy, not being dependent on the utility and leveraging the hottest investment you can ask for in Tinstletown.
