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Shining a Light on Residential Solar: 30 Years of Solar Energy in American Homes

About this web map

This interactive map allows users to explore the varied adaption of solar power in the residential energy sector in the United States over time.

Programatically dynamic color-coding helps to visualize the percentage of all of the residential electrical consumption which was derived from solar power.

Immediately obvious patterns that may be apparent to users include:

• It seems there was earlier adoption, and it seems there are greater percentages of solar power usage, in southerly and sunnier locales.
• Hawaii is such an outlier (23% in 2020) that it is the only state in the top tier!
• There seems to be a more rapid uptick in the years after 2010.
• Seemingly all states have increased their relative solar energy usage in residential consumption during this three decade period.

About the Data

The energy data visualized in this map was acquired from the API Dashboard of the US Energy Information Administration.

The EIA has succeeded in their mission to "[make] energy data more accessible, understandable, relevant, and responsive to your needs". Their data portal and API is a great model for other governmental groups with a commitment to open data.

The EIA's user-friendly API is free to the public with no account registration required.

The state polygons were created from shapefiles retrieved from Natural Earth, an open repository offering free vector and raster map data in the public domain.