This Is the State That Generates the Most Solar Energy

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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This Is the State That Generates the Most Solar Energy

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As the price of a barrel of oil moves well above $100, the use of fossil fuels has become an economic issue nearly as much as it has been an environmental one, at least in places where oil and coal are the primary sources of energy. This has touched off a battle. Should nations avoid economic downturns that may be triggered by high energy prices, or should they accept high prices as a necessary means to improve the environment? It is extremely hard to have it both ways. Yet, another challenge is a moral one. Should countries buy oil from Russia now that it has invaded Ukraine? For some nations, the financial cost will be extremely high if they shun Russian crude.

The recently released Solar Energy Overview from energy plan marketplace Save on Energy points out that: “Solar energy is quickly becoming a more popular and affordable power source for homeowners and businesses. With residential solar energy, you can lower your carbon footprint and see substantial cost savings.” The need for those saving may become ever more acute.

The researchers looked at data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) to determine solar energy use by state in 2019 and 2020. The study used thousand megawatt hours (MWh) for its rankings.

The ranking was not driven by state population. Although California, the largest state by population, ranked first, Texas, the second largest state by that measure, ranked sixth. Florida, the third-largest state by population ranked eighth on the list. One small state ranked in the top 10 for thousand megawatt hours used. Hawaii was in seventh place.
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In terms of most residential solar power produced, Arizona ranked second, followed by New Jersey, Massachusetts and New York. Here are the top 10 states based on solar energy generation:

State 2020 Generation (MWh) % of U.S. Total
California 17,498 41.92
Arizona 2,924 7.01
New Jersey 2,526 6.05
Massachusetts 2,340 5.61
New York 2,300 5.51
Texas 1,612 3.86
Hawaii 1,214 2.91
Florida 1,119 2.68
Maryland 1,015 2.43
Nevada 876 2.10

Click here to see which state has the lowest gasoline price in America.
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Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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