Greentech Lead America: Pacific Gas and Electric Company was ranked as the No.1 utility in terms of solar capacity added to their systems, as per the ranking from Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA).
Pacific Gas and Electric has an annual solar capacity of 805 MW. Other utilities following this path include Southern California Edison (195 MW), Public Service Electric & Gas Company (145 MW) and Arizona Public Service (124 MW).
Utilities ranking in this year’s SEPA Top 10 by Solar Megawatt accounted for 73 percent of all capacity integrated in 2012, a slight increase from 2011.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company of California, Southern California Edison and Public Service Electric & Gas Co. (NJ) often rank highly in this category due to their expansive customer solar programs and utility purchasing programs, SEPA said.
The SEPA also ranked utilities based on the Solar Watts-Per-Customer rankings taking into account the number of customers each utility serves relative to their solar megawatts installed.
Leading the Solar Watts-Per-Customer rankings are the City of St. Mary’s, Ohio; Kauai Island Utility Co-op in Hawaii and Bryan Municipal Utilities in Ohio; Hawaiian Electric Company, HI, and Chickasaw Electric Cooperative, TN.
“Utility companies across the nation are embracing clean energy solutions and showing their commitment to a more diverse energy portfolio improving the environment,” said Julia Hamm, president and CEO of SEPA.
“We are impressed with the sheer number of new utilities that have moved into the Top 10 lists, particularly those who have never been ranked in the past and are now adopting solar as part of their energy mix, increasingly so as the price of solar power declines year-over-year,” Hamm added.