Geospatial Analysis of Solar Energy as Electricity Source in the United States

In the aspect of policy, Massachusetts’ policies for solar are nearly as good as they can be. Specifically, the electricity price is pretty high, which indicates that utility companies in MA do not get most of energy from cheap coal, thus making solar more economical. Besides, MA does a great job on the net metering policy, which allows people to sell the solar electricity they don’t use to their utility for the same price when the utility sell to them. Moreover, the interconnection policy in MA is very up-to-date, simple, and straightforward, which determine how solar system owners can “plug in” to the grid and send power to utility companies. However, MA should improve its Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) law, which is the way a state legislature mandates that a certain percentage of all energy generation comes from renewable sources by a certain date. Further, the RPS Solar Carve-out in MA is relatively small, which means less incentives from utilities to homeowners, resulting in slower payback times and worse financial returns for solar investments.

New Jersey is definitely a leader in developing solar power, because the incentives here are so good, homeowners in New Jersey can't help but make tons of money by installing solar. The idea of "Buying the electricity, not the panels with a Power Purchase Agreement" works well and the supportive policies enable the state to continuously build up renewable energy projects.

Overall New Mexico has done a great job on solar policy since it’s a sunny place, and it could further improve the solar policy by extending the Solar Renewable Energy Credit, so the electricity suppliers are supported to secure a portion of their electricity from solar generators, which in turn, improves the electricity costs and makes solar more economical.

Despite Washington has the nation’s lowest energy prices and least sun, it tried pretty hard to help homeowners go solar. At the same time, Florida, “The Sunshine State”, is ranked very close on US Solar Power Rankings. Hydroelectric power is probably a bigger thing in Washington.

Florida is the most baffling when it comes to solar, because it bans third-party solar (PPAs), and is the locus of a confusing debate between solar advocates and utility-backed lobbyists. Each group is sponsoring its own ballot initiative in 2016, one to open the solar marketplace to PPA agreements, and one to add fees for solar net metering, making solar much less financially-viable for homeowners while ensuring utility companies maintain monopoly on generation.

Mississippi has a huge gap between its solar energy production and solar energy potential. This is mostly due to higher cost of installing solar panels in the state, and cheaper cost of using traditional energies like natural gas, coal and nuclear. Monopoly from energy companies and unfriendly state policies also add more uncertainty to the development of solar power in the state.

Wyoming just can’t seem to get it together. The state basically avoids taking any action that would help its citizens become more energy-independent, which is a sad state of affairs. You can still make money investing in solar in Wyoming, and with good net metering rules, you probably won’t have too difficult time doing it, but no guarantees.