How to Use This Map
Use the buttons above the map to choose what to display. One view at a time.
Show on map:
- Overall status: community solar and community ownership combined
- Virtual or Remote Net Metering: the bill-crediting system community solar runs on
- Community Solar: policies that enable or inhibit community solar
- Other State Support for Community-Owned Solar: state funding or incentives for community ownership
Colors:
- dark green = community solar and community ownership support;
- orange = community solar only, limited;
- grey = no enabling policies.
Exploring states: Click any state for its full report. Click ← All jurisdictions to return.
List tab: The same data as a sortable, searchable table you can download as a CSV.
Key Findings Across Policy Categories
How the three policy categories are distributed across the 50 states, and what each one means.
Overview
Using data from state governments and nonprofit sources, we compiled and compared information on policies and financial support that enable or otherwise affect community solar projects across the United States. For each jurisdiction, a panel is presented— opened by clicking a state on the map or selecting it from the list — that includes three "yes or no" categories — Virtual or Remote Net Metering, Community Solar, and Other State Support for Community-Owned Solar— each of which expands to further explanation of specific policies. The map covers all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories; the "Show on map" control switches between the overall status view and a single-category layer for each of the three. This section summarizes key insights across policy categories.
Policies
Among the 50 US states, thirteen have policies in place to enable virtual or remote net metering, shown in green on the Virtual or Remote Net Metering layer. Virtual net metering is a bill crediting system for community solar: when community solar projects generate power that's not used on site, it's fed back into the grid, generating net metering credits that are shared among subscribers based on their share of the array, reducing subscribers' electricity bills. Twenty-four states have policies that enable or inhibit community solar, shown in blue on the Community Solar layer. Enabling policies may include state laws that require utilities to allow the creation of community solar programs (Alaska) or more direct incentives, such as offering low-income households a 20% discount to participate in a community solar project (California). Inhibiting policies may include exceptions to state recommendations, such as allowing utilities to decline to participate in a community solar program (Arizona).
Funding
Finally, thirteen states had state or municipal-level financial support to enable community-owned solar, shown in yellow on the Other State Support for Community-Owned Solar layer. These include policies such as California's Green Tariff Shared Renewables (GTSR) initiative, which allows customers to purchase a share of a local renewable energy project. On each state's panel, this category is marked "yes" only if there is funding or an incentive structure directed by that state's government. The panel also indicates whether the state received funding from the federal Solar for All program or from one of its multi-state coalitions (Community Power Coalition, Southeast Rural Power, Clean Energy Fund of Texas).