Solar Power is Growing Up.

Solar power: Here's where your state now ranks

California remains the undisputed champion, with 19.8 gigawatts of solar PV capacity, nearly five times as much as second-ranked North Carolina. In fact, there was no change in the top five in 2017, but outside these slots there were plenty of movers and shakers.

 From article, (The Solar Energy Industries Association on Thursday released its annual review of U.S. solar installations and with it comes a fresh ranking of capacity by state.

The chart below ranks states and Washington, D.C., by their total solar photovoltaic capacity, the most common type of solar power technology. It also shows how much solar PV each state added in 2017 and 2016.

State solar PV installations. Click column heads to toggle. Totals reflect the cumulative amount of PV solar capacity in a state. The installs columns rank states by how much new capacity they added in a year. SEIA tracks 44 markets, including Washington DC.

State	Total 2017	Total 2016	2017 Installs	2016 Installs
California	1	1	1	1
North Carolina	2	2	2	4
Arizona	3	3	7	7
Nevada	4	4	9	5
New Jersey	5	5	11	10
Massachusetts	6	7	5	8
Texas	7	9	4	6
Utah	8	6	19	2
Georgia	9	8	21	3
Florida	10	15	3	9
New York	11	10	12	12
Colorado	12	11	23	11
Maryland	13	13	13	13
Hawaii	14	12	18	19
Minnesota	15	16	6	14
New Mexico	16	14	26	15
Virginia	17	20	10	17
South Carolina	18	27	8	20
Oregon	19	19	14	18
Connecticut	20	17	20	21
Idaho	21	21	16	16
Pennsylvania	22	18	25	25
Indiana	23	22	27	23
Alabama	24	28	17	22
Tennessee	25	23	22	26
Mississippi	26	40	15	37
Vermont	27	24	32	24
Ohio	28	26	29	36
Missouri	29	25	39	29
Delaware	30	30	36	30
Washington	31	31	34	28
Michigan	32	35	24	32
Illinois	33	32	40	38
Louisiana	34	29	42	33
New Hampshire	35	33	37	27
Iowa	36	34	35	35
Montana	37	39	28	41
Wisconsin	38	36	33	39
Washington DC	39	37	38	31
Rhode Island	40	NA	31	40
Oklahoma	41	NA	30	44
Kentucky	42	NA	41	34
Arkansas	43	38	43	42
Wyoming	44	NA	44	43

California remains the undisputed champion, with 19.8 gigawatts of solar PV capacity, nearly five times as much as second-ranked North Carolina.

Growth in solar PV capacity is spreading beyond the major markets to the Southeast and Midwest. Markets outside the top 10 accounted for 21 percent of total installed capacity last year, up from 16 percent in 2016.

Along with Florida and South Carolina, this trend is playing out in states such as Minnesota, Virginia, Alabama and Mississippi — all of which ranked in the top 20 for new solar capacity installations in 2017.

These and other emerging U.S. markets will play a big part in driving future solar PV growth, as the major state markets experience headwinds in the coming years.)

For More Info