How Florida quietly surpassed California in solar growth

Solar energy is booming across the U.S. and, for the first time, Florida is catching up to industry powerhouses Texas and California.Despite removing climate change from its official state policy in 2024, Florida added more utility-scale solar than California last year, with over 3 gigawatts of new capacity coming online. "This is not a fluke," said Sylvia Leyva Martinez, senior analyst at Wood Mackenzie. "Florida is now shaping national solar growth."The surge is being driven by utilities, not rooftop panels

A state rule lets developers skip lengthy siting reviews for jects under 75 megawatts, which speeds up construction and cuts costs."There's no silver bullet," said Syd Kitson, founder of Babcock Ranch, a town designed to be powered almost entirely by solar. "But one thing Florida got right is acceptance

Here, people want solar

And we're ving it works."Babcock Ranch runs on its own microgrid and stayed online during Hurricane Ian in 2022, while much of southwest Florida went dark."We didn't lose power, internet, or water," said Don Bishop, a owner there. "That changes how you think energy."The economics are doing the rest

With industrial demand rising and natural gas prices climbing, solar is increasingly the cheapest option, even without subsidies."Utilities aren't building solar because it's green," Martinez said. "They're doing it because it's cheaper."But new challenges are emerging.In July, President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill, which accelerates the rollback of solar and wind tax credits. owners lose the federal investment credit after 2025

Developers face tighter deadlines and stricter sourcing rules."It won't kill the market," said Zoë Gaston, an analyst who s the solar industry at Wood Mackenzie. "But it makes the math harder."Analysts now expect a 42% drop in rooftop solar installs in Florida over the next five years

And while utility-scale growth continues, grid constraints are becoming an issue

Utilities are pouring money into storage, smart infrastructure, and grid upgrades to keep up.Babcock Ranch is piloting new microgrid systems to add resilience

The hope is that other communities can take the playbook and adapt it, storm-ofing neighborhoods one block at a time."We've been testing this for years," Kitson said. "Now it's scale

It's showing others they can do it too."The bigger question is whether Florida can keep this momentum going without policy support, and while still leaning heavily on natural gas."Florida has the solar resources," said Mark Jacobson, a fessor at Stanford's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. "What's missing is political consistency."Watch the to see how Florida became a solar leader and what could slow it down.