Yet we’re still not even close to reaching our solar potential. Every year, enough sunlight shines on America to provide 100 times more power than we need. We’re capturing only a tiny percentage of that resource. Harnessing more of the sun’s energy would mean cleaner air and a more stable climate, less strain on natural resources, more resilient communities and an energy source we can depend on to be virtually pollution-free for as long as we can imagine.
So what’s slowing us down? What, if anything, can stop us?
In some places, we’re thinking too small, failing to enact policies that can help even more Americans go solar. In other places, we’re thinking too narrowly, putting the short-term interests of old industries with outdated business models ahead of our health, environment and wellbeing.
Think about your local big box stores — maybe Walmart, Target, Costco, or Home Depot come to mind. What if the entire rooftop and parking lot of that big box store was covered in solar panels? What about all the big box stores in the country?
As anyone who has walked through a superstore knows, these buildings are sprawling. Their vast, flat rooftops are great places for hosting clean energy. In fact, the rooftops of America’s big box stores and shopping centers could host 62.3 gigawatts (GW) of solar photovoltaic capacity, equivalent to the amount of electricity used by more than 7 million average U.S. homes or more than 7,500 average Walmart stores, and more than double the solar photovoltaic capacity that had been installed in the U.S. by 2016. Putting solar panels on the rooftops and parking lots of our big box stores would be good for the planet, good for consumers and good for businesses.
We’re asking big box stores to put solar panels on all of their rooftops and parking lots. We want these businesses to hear from their customers and the public about how great it would be if they went big on solar. Some big box stores like Ikea are already leading the way: By 2020, the retailer had installed over 700,000 solar panels on their stores across the world.
To start, we are asking Walmart to publicly commit to putting solar panels on the rooftops of nearly all of its more than 5,000 locations across America — and over the parking lots that surround them — by 2035.
Every great technological advance disrupts one or more existing industries, and solar is no exception.
A few utilities, including Green Mountain Power in Vermont, have embraced solar, retooling their business models around a grid with thousands of homes generating power as well as consuming it. But others have been less forward-thinking. Threatened by the growth of an energy source that requires less capital investment but smarter distribution, many electric utilities and their trade associations are pushing to roll back the policies that have enabled and encouraged solar’s growth. Fossil fuel interests, including the Koch brothers, have lobbied regulators and others to weaken or dismantle policies that would have made it easier for Americans to go solar.
We’re countering misinformation with facts, including data showing how solar’s benefits to utilities and their customers outweigh the costs of pro-solar incentives. We’re also bringing together leaders from an array of fields to support solar power development.
More than a million new homes are built each year in the U.S., yet only a tiny percentage will harness the clean, renewable power of the sun. What a wasted opportunity!
Installing solar panels on all new homes would create a wave of clean energy. Equipping all new homes built after 2021 with solar panels would add 206 gigawatts of solar capacity by 2047 and reduce CO2 emissions in 2047 by more than 156 million metric tons - equivalent to almost 10% of U.S. power plant emissions in 2019.
That’s why our Homes Go Solar campaign is asking state leaders across the country to make solar panels standard on all new homes.
In 2018, California became the first state in the country to require solar energy for all new homes. The state’s new building codes require that solar panels be installed on new homes beginning in 2020. Just as homeowners are more likely to go solar if they see solar panels on a neighbor’s roof, the rest of the country will be more likely to make solar standard in new homes as they see each new state follow California’s lead.
Generating renewable energy from our rooftops helps homeowners and their communities reduce pollution, live healthier lives, and leave our children a more livable planet. And after all, the best time to put solar on a home is when the workers are already on the roof.
To pass and implement solar homes requirements in states across the country, our members and the engaged public can call on their elected officials to support building all new homes with solar power.
Cities are major drivers of the growth in solar in America. From 2013 to 2018, most major American cities more than doubled their installed solar capacity, according to our annual Shining Cities report. One third of the biggest cities in the U.S. more than quadrupled their solar capacity in that time.
The cities that have been most successful share a set of priorities: they’ve set high goals for solar capacity, they’ve ensured that homeowners receive a fair price for the solar energy they supply to the grid, they have made installing panels hassle-free and they provide attractive financing options.
That’s why Environment America's Cities Go Solar project works with local elected officials to think bigger, plan smarter, and tap the sun for more power. For example, our state and local advocates, members, and activists are:
Of course every mayor wants her city to be a leader, especially when it comes to an innovation with the kind of broad transpartisan support that solar enjoys. So we’re encouraging mayors to run a race to the top on solar by comparing the growth of solar city by city in our bi-annual Shining Cities report, showcasing the results through the news media and on social media, and providing the resources cities need to capture more energy from the sun through our Mayors for Solar Energy project.
Even as we make the case for solar on environmental grounds, we’re bringing together a broad coalition that can offer a variety of reasons for local officials to act — from “Green Tea Party” activists in Georgia who want “energy freedom” to solar installers in Arizona who want green jobs, from low-income communities in Massachusetts that want cleaner air to business owners in Colorado who want to power their breweries and cafes with solar.
Since the 1970s our network of state affiliates has been calling for and winning pro-solar policies and progressing all the way to California’s Million Solar Roofs Initiative of 2006 and beyond. Environment America and our national network have chalked up solar policy victories in 12 states, plus Atlanta, San Diego, Albuquerque, St. Petersburg and more than a dozen other cities. Past successes make it easier for cities to aim higher now, and for more cities and states to jump on the bandwagon.
We need to transition to renewable energy and avoid increasing fossil fuel use in our communities. Every big box store without solar is a missed opportunity to generate clean energy.
To join us in asking Walmart to go big on solar, sign our petition.
