Exploring Relationships Between State Renewable Energy Goals and Large-Scale Solar Energy Development

Abstract

In efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate impacts of climate change, many states have employed policies to increase the market share of renewable energies. Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) are commonly used policies which mandate that a state obtains a certain proportion of its energy from renewable resources. Currently, 27 states have mandatory RPS, ten have voluntary RPS, and thirteen have no RPS. Most studies on this topic have used net renewable energy generation or total generating capacity as an indicator of renewable energy development. This study takes a different approach by using a new dataset (pending publication) containing over 3,600 polygons quantifying land area allocated to utility-scale (capacity over one megawatt) solar energy facilities in the US. Two measures of solar power are used to estimate solar activity by state (average number of facilities per square mile and percent land area developed for solar) which are then compared to state renewable energy goals. We observed that state renewable energy goals were statistically significantly associated with both variables. Further research about state-specific policies may serve to contextualize these findings and improve our understanding of the relationship between renewable energy policies and goals with solar energy development on the ground.