LOS ANGELES — The mayor unveiled one of the largest rooftop solar projects in the city Wednesday, a 2.2 megawatt solar array atop the South Hall roof of the Los Angeles Convention Center in LA Live. The project takes Los Angeles to the top city in the nation for solar power.

All together, Los Angeles has just under 350 megawatts of installed solar power, enough to provide power to 82,500 homes in L.A. for a savings of 187,304 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, or the equivalent of removing 40,108 automobiles from the road, the city reported.

While hovering in second place for a few years, Los Angeles became the No. 1 city in total installed energy powered by the sun, bumping the city of San Diego from the top spot, according to a report from Environment America Research & Policy Center released Wednesday.

“We’re proud to lead American cities in the movement to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement,” said L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti at the unveiling.

Rankings

Not far behind L.A. were: San Diego, Honolulu, Phoenix and San Jose, rounding out the top five cities in this year’s rankings, according to Environment America. This year’s report found the top 20 solar cities comprise 0.1 percent of the country’s land mass, yet account for 4 percent of U.S. solar capacity.

LADWP General Manager David Wright, who attended the ceremony, credited efforts by the utility to streamline the permitting process for Los Angeles residents and businesses to install solar and also provide incentives. Programs have helped provide 32,000 residential and commercial customers with $314 million in incentives, he said.

The new solar installation was developed by PermaCity Solar. The company last summer completed the Westmont Solar Energy Project at the Westmont Distribution Center, a 16.4 megawatt solar installation in San Pedro dubbed the most powerful rooftop solar project in the world.