As Florida quietly surpassed California in the solar height

Solar energy flourishes the US, and for the first time Florida catchs up with industrial power plants in Texas and California.

Despite the removal of climatic changes from its official state policy in 2024, Florida added more sunny utilities than California last year 3 gigawat The new potential that enters the Internet.

“It’s not a fluk,” said Sylvia Leva Martinez, senior analyst at Wood Mackenzie. “Florida now forms the national growth of solar energy.”

The splashes are managed by utilities, not the roof panels. Florida Power & Light Last year alone, he built more than 70% of the new solar state. The state rule allows developers to skip long -term reviews for projects under 75 megawatts, which speeds up construction and reduces costs.

“There’s no silver bullet,” said Sid Kittson, founder of Babcock Ranch, a city designed to work almost completely solar. “But one thing Florida got the right thing is accepting. People want solar energy here. And we prove it works.”

Babcock Ranch works on your own microser and Remained online during the hurricane yang in 2022, While most of the south -western Florida darkened.

“We have not lost power, internet and water,” Don Bishop said there. “It changes how you think about energy.”

The economy does everything else. With increasing demand for industrial demand and natural gas prices, Solar is becoming an increasingly cheap option, even without subsidies.

“Utilities do not build solar because it is green,” Martinez said. “They do it because it’s cheaper.”

But there are new problems.

In July, President Trump signed One big beautiful bill, that accelerates the rollback of solar and wind tax credits. Housing owners lose federal investment loan after 2025. Developers face tougher terms and tougher search rules.

“This will not kill the market,” said Zoya Gaston, an analyst who monitors the solar industry in Wood Mackenzi. “But it complicates mathematics.”

Now analysts are waiting 42% drop The Solar roof is installed in Florida over the next five years. And although the growth of utility continues, the restrictions of the network become a problem. Utilities pour money for storage, reasonable infrastructure and network modernization to keep up.

Babcock Ranch pilot new micosebrats to add resistance. I hope that other communities can take the book and tailor it, storms conducting storms at one quarter at a time.

“We have been tested for years,” Kittson said. “It is about scale now. It is about showing others what they can do.”

The big question is whether Florida can keep this impetus without the support of politics, while still relying on natural gas.

“Florida has solar resources,” said Mark Jacobson, Professor of the Stanford Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. “What is missing is a political sequence.”

Watch the video to find out how Florida became a solar leader and what can slow it.