2018 Utility Solar Market Snapshot

Direct from utilities: hard facts, no guesswork.

The 11th annual Utility Solar Market Snapshot delivers what no other industry report can: analysis and figures based on verified interconnection data from over 420 utilities across the United States. In this year’s snapshot, you will discover signs of resilience in spite of concerns about potential market decline and uncertainty.

Some key findings include:

• Signs of growth: of 42 gigawatts (GW) of utility interconnected solar since 2007, 18% was added in the last year. Now, solar represents 3% of monthly electric generation.
• A residential awakening: the historically sluggish residential market came alive in 2017 with a 49% increase over 2016.
• Enormous strides for community solar: in 2017, the community solar market doubled in size with over 50% of growth occurring in one state: Minnesota.
• Potential tax burden: the drop in corporate tax rate from 35 to 21% may dampen tax equity investment for utility-scale solar.

What’s in the Report

This year’s snapshot delivers critical data and findings such as:

• US solar rankings and market deployment by utility type and market segment
• State level market data and regional insights by utility type
• Net metering trends
• Trends in customer choice and utility programs including community (or shared) solar and solar + other technologies (including storage, advanced inverters, and microgrids)
• Small and medium business solar energy preferences
• Commercial and industrial customer attitudes toward green tariffs
• Policy updates under FERC and PURPA developments

Member Only Content

SEPA members: access the 2017 utility survey dataset by logging in to the EStore. This dataset includes the number of installed systems, solar capacity for residential, non-residential, and utility supply by state; and cumulative utility solar deployment data.

To access the report figures and tables to use for presentations, or other materials, click here and log into the Estore.