Top 10 Solar Utilities

Photo credit: Orin Optiglot
Utilities are now positioned to take on a much greater role in the production, sale, and delivery of new forms of grid energy, especially solar power. The feds may still be debating but many states have already implemented energy standards to speed up the transition from fossil-fueled energy, a transition for which utilities are largely responsible. Furthermore, under the revised, federal solar tax credits, utilities are now directly eligible for financial incentives.

Today the nation’s top 10 utilities hold 882 megawatts of solar capacity, with installations increasing by 25 percent in 2008. Still this is a miniscule sum when stacked next to a million-watt-capacity national electric grid, although utilities are ramping up production.

Southern California Edison, with enviable access to California’s Mojave Desert, tops the list for total capacity with over 441 megawatts — nearly doubling that of second-placer and northern California serving Pacific Gas & Electric. In total watts per customer, however, two small Bay Area utilities have a commanding lead: the San Francisco PUC with 4,739 watts and the Port of Oakland with over 3,414 watts.

After the two California frontrunners, both lists drop dramatically number-wise and jump around the nation a bit, although sticking fairly close to California, our nation’s solar energy hub. And that is a revealing statistic; evidence of our recent, state-reliant national energy plan (in other words, no national energy plan) and, to be fair, one of the most solar-friendly climates in the world.

Outside of the southwest and Hawaii only three utilities make either list; an Xcel Energy subsidiary in Colorado, Public Service Electric & Gas Co. in New Jersey, and the Long Island Power Authority – all scoring in the total solar megawatts category. See the full list at wired.com.

Nonetheless, the stage is set for a utility-scale ascendance. Utilities, and solar energy for that matter, are still a few years away from making a real dent in national energy production, however. Yet expected climate legislation, among other factors, has many utilities already up and running the renewable energy race. A slew of large-scale solar projects, primarily in the desert southwest, are set to go online within the next few years.

Posted on June 15th in Solar Electric by Dan.