If we want cleaner air and a more stable climate, we need to harness energy from the sun. That's why we're calling on cities to go big on solar.
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More Americans are going solar every day. By 2019, our country had enough solar energy capacity installed to power the equivalent of more than 12 million homes.
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 In other places, we’re thinking too narrowly, putting the short-term interests of old industries with outdated business models ahead of our health, environment and wellbeing.
Cities Go Solar
Cities are primary 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.
Los Angeles / zhu difeng via Shutterstock.com
The cities that have been most successful at embracing solar power 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 set a goal of convincing 50 American cities to think bigger, plan smarter, and tap the sun for more power. For example, our state and local advocates, members, and activists are:
- calling on cities from Boston to Albuquerque to join over 100 other U.S. communities in committing to a future powered by 100 percent renewable energy, and establish a plan to get there using locally produced solar energy, and
- backing ambitious solar energy goals in cities like San Antonio and St. Petersburg, as well as the policies and programs that will help make them a reality.
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 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.
Homes Go Solar
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!
esbobeldijk via Shutterstock.com
If we started installing solar panels on all new homes now, we would double our solar energy capacity in just six years. A solar homes requirement would cut an estimated 161 million metric tons of climate-damaging carbon dioxide in 2045. That’s the equivalent of taking more than 34 million of today’s cars off of the road.
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 not only support building all new homes with solar power but prioritize this legislation.
Stand up for solar
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.
Dan Jacobson, Environment California
We're urging officials in 20 states to resist such efforts to undermine the development of solar power.
- Environment Michigan is urging the Michigan Public Service Commission to reject utility proposals to charge solar customers additional fees and special charges, failing to recognize the full value of local, clean energy that those customers provide.
- Environment Massachusetts is calling on the state legislature to eliminate arbitrary obstacles standing in the way of solar energy development, including caps that severely limit how much customers can be fairly reimbursed for the clean, renewable solar energy they supply to the grid.
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.
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