California has easily defended its title as the state with the highest capacity of cumulative solar deployments in recent years.
But the latest data shows that’s changing — at least in the short term. Analysts now forecast Florida Power & Light will lead the Sunshine State to the top spot for utility-scale solar additions over the next six years.
As Florida utilities eye 9 gigawatts of solar, much of it self-owned and driven by favorable economics, California’s market remains in flux.
All of California’s investor-owned utilities are coping with a rise in demand for emerging community-choice aggregators, an energy procurement model driven by local government that’s taken a bite out of investor-owned utility load. One utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, is also working through bankruptcy.
On top of that dynamic, saturation in California’s solar market has dulled its economic competitiveness.