Chart: Which states rank highest for utility-scale solar?

Canary Media’s chart of the week translates crucial data about the clean energy transition into a visual format. Canary thanks Clean Energy Counsel for its support of the column.

Texas installed more solar capacity than any other state in 2023. But more solar panels do not necessarily make for a clean grid; natural gas and coal still account for 57 percent of Texas’ electric supply. So which states get the largest shares of electricity from utility-scale solar?

Nevada, California, and Utah shine through in this category, while Texas comes in 13^th, per a new Cleanview analysis of data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Nevada takes first place, sourcing nearly 29 percent of its electric capacity from utility-scale solar. Its ambitious renewable portfolio standard mandates that 34 percent of the electricity supplied by the state’s utilities comes from renewables in 2024, 42 percent in 2027, and 50 percent by 2030. That strong standard has gone a long way to spur utilities to adopt solar. 

California — which comes in second with just over 21 percent solar capacity on its grid — has adopted even more ambitious clean-energy mandates: 60 percent of the state’s electricity must come from zero-carbon sources by 2030 and 100 percent by 2045. Utah, in third place with solar providing nearly 21 percent of its grid capacity, looks on track to beat its non-binding target of 20 percent clean energy by 2025. 

At the very bottom of the list is North Dakota, which has no utility-scale solar. But that could soon change, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, which projects the state will install close to 90 megawatts of utility-scale solar in 2027. 

New Hampshire is second to last, with just 0.05 percent utility-scale solar, and Kansas is third from the bottom at 0.2 percent. SEIA forecasts that both states will add utility-scale solar installations next year. 

Large-scale solar has taken hold most dramatically in big Western states with lots of open space, but not exclusively. Heavily forested Vermont, for example, still manages to source nearly 17 percent of its electric capacity from utility solar. 

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