Phoenix Ranked Top City For Solar Power

PHOENIX — Phoenix is one of America's Top Shining Cities, according to an annual report that measures solar power use in the United States by Environment America.

Phoenix is the 4th city with the most solar photovoltaic (PV) installed total, and the 8th city America with the most solar PV Installed per capita.

PV equipment coverts sunlight to electricity by using semiconductors. This technology is generally manufactured in the form of a panel, which is why PV devices are more commonly called "solar panels."

For seven years the Environment America Research & Policy Center and Frontier Group has published this report to expose the capacity solar power is being used as an energy source in America.

Of the 57 cities surveyed in all seven editions of this report, almost 90 percent more than doubled their total installed solar PV capacity between 2013 and 2019.

According to the report, Honolulu leads the country for the most solar power used per person. Los Angeles leads the nation for the most total installed solar PV capacity.

The United States now has more than 77 gigawatts (GW) of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity installed — enough to power more than one in every 10 homes in America.

The annual report also found that leading solar cities are scattered throughout different regions of the country.

Nearly 45 percent of the cities surveyed in all seven editions of this report more than quadrupled their installed solar PV capacity from 2013 to 2019.

Even though major cities lead the country in solar power usage, the report notes that there are many smaller cities like Las Cruces, New Mexico, Asheville, North Carolina and El Paso, Texas that have implemented solar power in large ways for their size.

Some of the cities in this report could generate hundreds of times more solar power than they do today. A National Renewable Energy Laboratory study estimated that small building rooftops alone are technically capable of hosting enough solar energy to cover the annual electricity needs of more than 130 million American homes — about as many as exist in the U.S.

View the interactive map and read the full story at environmentamerica.org.