Solar power includes solar farms as well as local distributed generation, mostly on rooftops and increasingly from community solar arrays. In 2023, utility-scale solar power generated 164.5 terawatt-hours (TWh), or 3.9% of electricity in the United States. Total solar generation that year, including estimated small-scale photovoltaic generation, was 238 TWh.
Solar panels on a rooftop in New York City
Community solar farm in the town of Wheatland, Wisconsin
Solar array at Nellis Air Force Base. These panels track the sun in one axis. Credit: U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Larry E. Reid Jr.
Photovoltaic panels on the roof of a house in Boston
Solar power in California
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Solar power has been growing rapidly in the U.S. state of California because of high insolation, community support, declining solar costs, and a renewable portfolio standard which requires that 60% of California's electricity come from renewable resources by 2030, with 100% by 2045. Much of this is expected to come from solar power via photovoltaic facilities or concentrated solar power facilities.
Photovoltaic (foreground) and Solar water heating (rear) panels located on rooftops in Berkeley, California. Note the low tilt of the photovoltaic panels, optimized for summer, and the high tilt of the water heating panels, optimized for winter.
Satellite image of Topaz Solar Farm in San Luis Obispo County, California, taken on January 2, 2015, by the Operational Land Imager on Landsat 8
Rooftop solar, fitness center building
Part of the 354 MW SEGS solar complex in northern San Bernardino County, California.