California surpasses customer-installed goal a year early

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email
California installed 1,041MW of solar capacity in 2015 - an increase of 55% on 2014 figures. Source: Flickr/Europressedienst

California is once again outshining other states in its solar progress – this time by reaching its customer-installed solar energy goal a year early.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) recently announced that the state’s California Solar Initiative programme had installed 1,753.6MW, with another 139.7MW reserved in pending projects, surpassing the goal of installing 1,750MW by 2017.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Try Premium for just $1

  • Full premium access for the first month at only $1
  • Converts to an annual rate after 30 days unless cancelled
  • Cancel anytime during the trial period

Premium Benefits

  • Expert industry analysis and interviews
  • Digital access to PV Tech Power journal
  • Exclusive event discounts

Or get the full Premium subscription right away

Or continue reading this article for free

This record installation was achieved by customers of the Golden State’s three investor-owned utilities (IOUs), who installed 1,041MW of solar capacity in 2015 – an increase of 55% more than the capacity installed in 2014, according to state regulators.

Importantly, the installations were achieved in the absence of a rebate incentive, as highlighted in the CPUC’s annual report of the California Solar Initiative.

In total, the programme oversaw an estimated 2,750MW of solar capacity across 451,597 sites in the territories of Pacific Gas & Electric Co (PG&E), San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) and Southern California Edison. As previously reported, these utility territories are hot spots for solar; with SDG&E surpassing its 5% net-metering cap and initiating NEM 2.0, with the other IOUs close to follow.

The increased solar capacity is an important reflection of the drop in the cost of residential solar systems – with the average cost of a system decreasing by 53% from US$10.87/W to US$5.14/W. The average cost of an installed non-residential system has also decreased significantly; falling 62% from US$10.30/W to US$3.93/W.

21 October 2025
New York, USA
Returning for its 12th edition, Solar and Storage Finance USA Summit remains the annual event where decision-makers at the forefront of solar and storage projects across the United States and capital converge. Featuring the most active solar and storage transactors, join us for a packed two-days of deal-making, learning and networking.
16 June 2026
Napa, USA
PV Tech has been running PV ModuleTech Conferences since 2017. PV ModuleTech USA, on 16-17 June 2026, will be our fifth PV ModulelTech conference dedicated to the U.S. utility scale solar sector. The event will gather the key stakeholders from solar developers, solar asset owners and investors, PV manufacturing, policy-making and and all interested downstream channels and third-party entities. The goal is simple: to map out the PV module supply channels to the U.S. out to 2027 and beyond.

Read Next

October 7, 2025
Solar PV will account for almost 80% of the 4.6TW of new renewable power expected to be added by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
October 7, 2025
Doral Renewables has secured a PPA with an unnamed 'corporate buyer' for its 430MW Cold Creek solar-plus-storage project in Texas.
October 7, 2025
US independent power producer (IPP) Arevon has begun operations at two utility-scale solar projects in Indiana.
Premium
October 6, 2025
Talon PV aims to be the first US company to safely manufacture TOPCon cells at scale, backed by European technology and a crucial First Solar licensing deal.
October 6, 2025
US utility AES Corporation is reportedly in discussions to be acquired by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a subsidiary of global asset owning giant BlackRock.
October 3, 2025
Renewables developer Madison Energy Infrastructure has bought the US distributed generation assets of NextEra Energy Resources.

Subscribe to Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Solar Media Events
October 21, 2025
New York, USA
Solar Media Events
November 25, 2025
Warsaw, Poland
Solar Media Events
December 2, 2025
Málaga, Spain
Solar Media Events
February 3, 2026
London, UK