The Extraordinary Growth of Solar in the US Visualized

Residential solar installations have grown rapidly as solar costs have plummeted over 80% over the last 10 years. Ever wondered where all the installations are happening?

Now, you can not only see where all the installations are but also track when the solar installations happened. We analyzed the entire U.S. home solar installation data* and created an interactive tool that visualizes the growth of solar power systems over many years.

By 2000, there were only a few thousand homes in the U.S. that had solar. Homeowners who adopted solar were pioneers, motivated by cool technology and positive environmental impact.

By 2005, about forty thousand homes had adopted solar. Homeowners in California, Hawaii and New Jersey led the way supported by incentive programs.

By 2010, solar power was not niche any more. More than quarter of a million homes had adopted solar. By now Florida, Massachusetts and New York were starting to adopt in larger numbers.

By 2015, solar installations crossed an important milestone. More than 1 million homes had adopted solar across more than 15 states.

Today, solar adoption is truly mainstream driven by the thousands of dollars in potential electricity bill savings. In addition, solar panel systems offer other benefits such as protection from future rate hikes and energy independence.

Kumar Dhuvur is the co-founder of PowerScout. 

*data for this analysis was sourced from The Open PV Project. Includes data on residential, commercial, other and unknown types of solar installations.