Colorado keeps status as top-10 solar state

DENVER — Colorado in 2015 retained its spot as the state with the 10th-most solar-electric capacity per capita in the nation, according to a report released Thursday by Environment Colorado’s Research and Policy Center.

The report, authored by Gideon Weissman of Frontier Group and Bret Fanshaw and Rob Sargent of Environment America Research and Policy Center, laid out solar generation capacity for all 50 states, noting that the top 10 states landed high in the rankings mostly for their favorable policies toward solar rather than simply an abundance of sunshine.

Colorado in 2015 had 99 watts per person of solar capacity.

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Nevada unseated Hawaii for the top spot, with 421 watts per person. Hawaii (394) came in second, California (338) third, Arizona (337) fourth and North Carolina (208) fifth. New Jersey (182), Vermont (181), New Mexico (175), Massachusetts (153) and Colorado rounded out the top 10.

Those 10 states, the report states, accounted for 88 percent of all solar-generating capacity in the nation in 2015.

As for solar capacity added in 2015 alone, Colorado ranked ninth, with 26 watts per person added, marking a roughly one-third increase overall for the state. Nevada took top honors in that category as well, with 144 watts per person added, while North Carolina was second at 113.

The report noted that in February the United States saw its 1 millionth solar installation, up from just 10,000 in 2003. The generating capacity nationwide doubled from 2013 to 2015 alone as the costs of installation fell by more than half from 2008 to 2014.

Environment Colorado officials said changes to net metering laws and other policy pushes threaten the continued addition of solar in some of the top solar-producing states, including Nevada and Hawaii where net metering was eliminated in 2015.