August 6, 2008—The Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA) has announced Top Ten rankings that reveal which utilities in the US had the most solar electricity integrated into their energy mix as of the end of 2007. The rankings are based on information provided through a survey of utilities and independent research.
“Based on recent announcements and internal discussions with utilities, SEPA anticipates that utilities will quickly become the largest and one of the most important customers for the solar industry,” said Julia Hamm, SEPA executive director. “Whether solar electric systems are developed by utilities, their customers, or solar companies, the utilities’ proactive engagement with emerging solar technologies is important to the solar industry as a whole.”
For total solar electric capacity by megawatt (MW), Southern California Edison (CA) takes top honors as the most solar integrated utility with the most overall solar capacity (MW) and solar capacity per customer (MW/customer). SCE’s long-standing contracts with the SEGS concentrating solar thermal (CST) plants drive its large number of solar megawatts.
For the amount of solar electricity interconnected to the utility on the customer side of the meter, Pacific Gas & Electric (CA) took the honors for both the largest amount of overall solar capacity and the highest MW per customer.
On the utility side of the meter, Southern California Edison is the highest ranked utility both for overall MW as well as MW per customer, which drove its number one total ranking.
When divided into public and private utilities, the list diversifies. On the customer side of the meter for public power utilities, Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (CA) is the most solar integrated in overall capacity, while Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (HI) has the highest capacity per customer.
California, with its longstanding policies for solar market development, represents the majority of the highest rankings, but utilities in Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin also make the top ten in many categories. Solar markets are expanding rapidly beyond California, so SEPA says the next list could show many changes.
The full report (.pdf file), which includes the rankings, is available for download from SEPA.
