Solar Market Insight report from the Solar Energy Industries Association and energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie.
It’s the first time the state has taken the No. 1 spot in solar installations, marking a potential clean energy inflection point for a populous state with a dirty grid.
Florida gets just 6 percent of its electricity from solar and depends largely on fossil gas for the rest.
Florida doesn’t have a renewable portfolio standard and doesn’t allow power-purchase agreements — two policies that have accelerated investments in solar across the nation.
Solar policies in Florida have tended to favor utility-owned large-scale solar over residential and commercial rooftop power generation: Around 86 percent of the state’s solar installed in the first half of this year was built by utilities.
The state’s largest power company, Florida Power & Light, accounted for 1,769 megawatts over that period, followed by Duke Energy, which connected 389 megawatts.
Despite the lack of a renewable portfolio standard, a ban on power-purchase agreements and the dominance of utility-scale solar, Florida does still have net metering, a policy that pays rooftop solar owners for the excess power they export to the electrical grid. »
