by Emma Foehringer Merchant

July 01, 2019 July 01, 2019

California has easily defended its title as the state with the highest capacity of cumulative solar deployments in recent years.

But the latest data shows that’s changing — at least in the short term. Analysts now forecast Florida Power & Light will lead the Sunshine State to the top spot for utility-scale solar additions over the next six years.

As Florida utilities eye 9 gigawatts of solar, much of it self-owned and driven by favorable economics, California’s market remains in flux.

All of California’s investor-owned utilities are coping with a rise in demand for emerging community-choice aggregators, an energy procurement model driven by local government that’s taken a bite out of investor-owned utility load. One utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, is also working through bankruptcy.

On top of that dynamic, saturation in California’s solar market has dulled its economic competitiveness.