On July 9th, 2011, the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA, Washington D.C., U.S.) released its fourth annual report ranking the solar electric capacities added by U.S. utilities.

Once again, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E, San Francisco, California, U.S.) topped the list for the most new capacity added at 157 MW-AC; however this year saw significant progress from utilities in Florida, New Jersey and Colorado.

"About 63 percent of the new solar capacity came from utilities outside California, the largest percentage on record," states the report's executive summary.

"Seven of this year’s top 10 solar megawatt utilities were from outside California, and four of the top-ranking utilities were located in the Eastern United States."

Top 10 utilities add 561 MW in 2010

SEPA notes that the top ten utilities installed a total of 561 MW-AC of new solar electric capacity, a doubling of 2009 levels.

After PG&E, the utility with the second-most solar capacity added was Florida Power & Light Company (Juno Beach, Florida, U.S.) at 87.2 MW-DC, followed by Public Service Electric & Gas Company (PSE&G, Newark, New Jersey, U.S.) at 74.7 MW.

In terms of most watts added per customer, municipal utility Silicon Valley Power (Santa Clara, California, U.S.) topped the list at 39.9 watts-AC per customer, followed by PSE&G at 35.2 watts-AC, and Hawaiian Electric Company Inc. (HECO, Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.) at 33.2 watts-AC.

Both Silicon Valley Power and HECO made the top ten of watts added per customer in 2009.

2011-06-11| Courtesy: Solar Electric Power Association | solarserver.com © Heindl Server GmbH

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