Average Size of Solar in the United States: Small

John Farrell
October 09, 2012 | 5 Comments

It often seems like big progress on clean energy only comes in big pieces, but in solar power the sweet spot is small. The following infographic from ILSR shows that the average size of installed solar PV in the U.S. is just 34 kilowatts, enough to power about seven homes.

This post originally appeared on ILSR’s Energy Self-Reliant States blog.

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5 Comments

Dr. A. Cannara
October 10, 2012

Solar 'farms' are wasteful anyway. This is why local solar, like the Calif. "million solar homes" initiative are the sensible future. But investors/promoters aren't about that kind of 'green'/
;]

ANONYMOUS
October 10, 2012

Most people would define a sweet spot by price performance, in which case the sweet spot is at the utility scale. The average system size says nothing about the most efficient system size, but the author's job is to try to promote distributed local usage any way he can. This was a nice try, but no one should buy into the notion.
Steven

Delroy Leslie
October 10, 2012

The size of residential solar is always small because most home owners are only looking for a size to cover their electric needs. Phil, WI is a dud when it comes to solar energy, the only incentive in the state is the tax exempt for solar equipment & increased property value caused by solar. The state does not allow 3rd party PPA, has a low net metering standard, has a low RPS that allows the utilities to use WI ratepayer's money to import RE from other states, has no SREC program, and nothing in the form of virtual net metering. The state's public service commission should be renamed utility service commission.

Phil Manke
October 10, 2012

John, Are you saying the average size of home sized systems is 5KW and average commercial size is 100KW? Any data by state? It would also be great to have some "by state" data on incentive programs and RPS configurations. WI has a recently modified RPS with no solar carve-out, but getting info is difficult. I suspect the Ute's like it that way.

Quentin Prideaux
October 9, 2012

The facts as presented don't mean this at all. An average doesn't represent a high frequency. There are probably NO projects with 34kW.

Average one utility project with 5 single-home projects and......average is 34kW. But this is NOT a 'sweet spot'.

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John Farrell

John Farrell directs the Energy Self-Reliant States and Communities program at ILSR and he focuses on energy policy developments that best expand the benefits of local ownership and dispersed generation of renewable energy. His latest paper,...