City of Las Vegas No. 6 for Solar in New Report

Environment Nevada

For More Information: Bret Fanshaw, 602-252-9225, [email protected]

City of Las Vegas – The City of Las Vegas ranks sixth for its amount of solar energy per capita in a new report, landing it among the nation’s leaders for installing clean energy from the sun.

“Cities like Las Vegas are leading the way to a future powered by clean, renewable energy,” said Bret Fanshaw with Environment America and Environment Nevada. “By tapping into more of our vast solar energy potential, all of Nevada can benefit from cleaner air and work to fight climate change.”

Las Vegas ranks just ahead of Phoenix, Arizona, and just behind Burlington, Vermont, for megawatts of solar energy per capita as of year-end 2017. It also ranks tenth for the total number of megawatts of solar nationally. The city has used solar energy to power its government operations with 100 percent renewable energy.

“As a national leader in sustainability and renewable energy, the City of Las Vegas is encouraged to hear how federal, state, and local policies and programs have helped our residents and businesses take advantage of clean, low-cost solar energy – just as we have been doing for our municipal operations and facilities increasingly over the past decade,” said City of Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn G. Goodman.

The report, Shining Cities 2018: How Smart Local Policies Are Expanding Solar Power in America, shows that the top 20 solar cities, comprising just 0.1 percent of the country’s land mass, account for 4 percent of U.S. solar capacity.

“We are in a moment when progress on renewable energy will come from cities across the country,” said Fanshaw. “More local leaders should step up and start plugging their communities into the clean and virtually limitless power of the sun.”

Shining Cities is the fifth annual report from Environment America Research & Policy Center. Each year, the survey ranks nearly 70 of the nation’s major cities by megawatts of solar energy.