2008 Top Ten Utility Solar Integration Rankings
This year’s report is based on the 2008 Utility Solar Electricity Survey completed by utilities in April 2009. The report catalogs how much solar electricity was interconnected by surveyed utilities in calendar year 2008 and what was installed cumulatively up through the end of 2008, including both photovoltaics and concentrating solar power.
It includes all solar electricity generation integrated into the utility’s portfolio regardless of whether it was owned by the utility, their customer, or a third-party company, and regardless of whether it was installed on the utility or customer side of the meter.
The participating utilities are generally self-selecting for having more active solar programs and projects, so results are not necessarily representative of a typical utility in the United States.
The “2008 Top Ten Utility Solar Integration Rankings” report shows an average increase of 2 megawatts per participating utility over the twelve months of 2008. Two megawatts is enough to offset the use of over 300 homes on an annual basis. In the total solar-watts-per-customer category, utilities added an average of 33 watts per customer, or the equivalent of one residential-sized system for every 90 customers. However, the median utility added about one watt per customer, showing that watt-per-customer growth is still concentrated in certain utility markets.
