Solar power in Washington (state) explained

As of the first quarter of 2023, Washington State has 604 MW of solar power electricity generation.^[1] This is an increase from about 300 MW in 2021 and 27 MW in 2013.

Washington pays a feed-in tariff of up to $5,000/year of 15 cents/kWh, which is increased by a factor of 2.4 if the panels are made in the state and by an additional 1.2 if the inverters are made in state.^[2] ^[3]

Amount of sunlight

The average insolation in Washington's two largest cities are as follows.

In the charts, a peak sun hour is one kilowatt-hour per square meter of solar irradiance.^[4]

ImageSize = width:420 height:240PlotArea = width:350 height:150 left:40 bottom:40AlignBars = late

DateFormat = x.yPeriod = from:0 till:7TimeAxis = orientation:verticalScaleMajor = unit:month increment:1 start:0

TextData = pos:(15,220) textcolor:black fontsize:M text:hrs pos:(205,25) textcolor:black fontsize:S text:Month pos:(90,230) textcolor:black fontsize:M text:Seattle Sun Hours/day (Avg = 3.76 hrs/day)

Colors = id:yellow value:yellow

PlotData= width:20 textcolor:black bar:Jan color:yellow from:0 till:1.54 text:1.54 shift:(-10,25) bar:Feb color:yellow from:0 till:2.50 text:2.50 shift:(-10,35) bar:Mar color:yellow from:0 till:3.71 text:3.71 shift:(-10,50) bar:Apr color:yellow from:0 till:4.37 text:4.37 shift:(-10,55) bar:May color:yellow from:0 till:5.31 text:5.31 shift:(-10,65) bar:Jun color:yellow from:0 till:5.52 text:5.52 shift:(-10,65) bar:Jul color:yellow from:0 till:5.88 text:5.88 shift:(-10,70) bar:Aug color:yellow from:0 till:5.17 text:5.17 shift:(-10,65) bar:Sep color:yellow from:0 till:4.98 text:4.98 shift:(-10,60) bar:Oct color:yellow from:0 till:3.00 text:3.00 shift:(-10,40) bar:Nov color:yellow from:0 till:1.76 text:1.76 shift:(-10,25) bar:Dec color:yellow from:0 till:1.26 text:1.26 shift:(-10,20)

Source: NREL^[5]

ImageSize = width:420 height:240PlotArea = width:350 height:150 left:40 bottom:40AlignBars = late

DateFormat = x.yPeriod = from:0 till:7TimeAxis = orientation:verticalScaleMajor = unit:month increment:1 start:0

TextData = pos:(15,220) textcolor:black fontsize:M text:hrs pos:(205,25) textcolor:black fontsize:S text:Month pos:(90,230) textcolor:black fontsize:M text:Spokane Sun Hours/day (Avg = 4.48 hrs/day)

Colors = id:yellow value:yellow

PlotData= width:20 textcolor:black bar:Jan color:yellow from:0 till:2.54 text:2.54 shift:(-10,40) bar:Feb color:yellow from:0 till:2.99 text:2.99 shift:(-10,45) bar:Mar color:yellow from:0 till:4.27 text:4.27 shift:(-10,55) bar:Apr color:yellow from:0 till:5.08 text:5.08 shift:(-10,65) bar:May color:yellow from:0 till:5.49 text:5.49 shift:(-10,65) bar:Jun color:yellow from:0 till:5.55 text:5.55 shift:(-10,65) bar:Jul color:yellow from:0 till:6.86 text:6.86 shift:(-10,80) bar:Aug color:yellow from:0 till:6.58 text:6.58 shift:(-10,75) bar:Sep color:yellow from:0 till:5.61 text:5.61 shift:(-10,70) bar:Oct color:yellow from:0 till:4.52 text:4.52 shift:(-10,55) bar:Nov color:yellow from:0 till:2.26 text:2.26 shift:(-10,35) bar:Dec color:yellow from:0 till:1.99 text:1.99 shift:(-10,30)

Source: NREL^[6]

Installed generation capacity

Total grid connected

Grid-Connected PV Capacity (MW)^[7] ^[8] ^[9] ^[10] ^[11] ^[12] ^[13] ^[14]
Year	Capacity	Change	% Change
2007	1.9
2008	3.7	1.8	95%
2009	5.2	1.5	41%
2010	8.0	2.9	54%
2011	12.3	4.2	54%
2012	19.5	7.2	59%
2013	27.4	7.9	41%
2014	39	7.2	42%
2015	62	26	59%
2016	85	23	37%
2017	105	20	23%
2018	169	64	61%
2019	216	47	27%
2020	250.3	34.3	15%
2021	297.6	47.3	%
2022	585	287.4	%

Utility-scale

Utility-scale solar generation in Washington (GWh)^[15]
Year	Total	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
2018	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
2019	43	2	2	4	4	4	5	5	5	4	4	2	2
2020	47	1	3	4	5	5	5	7	6	4	4	2	1
2021	50	1	2	5	6	6	7	7	6	5	4	2	1
2022	83	1	3	5	5	6	6	7	6	4	13	14	11
2023	363	15	23	34	42	16	52	52	45	35	27	16	8
2024		11	18

External links

Incentives and policies

Notes and References

Web site: Washington Solar SEIA . 2023-08-19 . www.seia.org . en.
https://web.archive.org/web/20170303123944/http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/washington-state-creates-incentive-for-home-solar-power-production.html Washington State Creates Incentive for Home Solar Power Production
http://www.dsireusa.org/incentives/incentive.cfm?Incentive_Code=WA27F&re=1&ee=1 Washington Renewable Energy Production Incentives
Web site: This is How Much Sunlight Your Solar Panel System Needs .
Web site: PV Watts. NREL. 19 August 2012.
Web site: PV Watts. NREL. 19 August 2012.
Web site: U.S. Solar Market Trends 2013. Sherwood, Larry. Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC). July 2014. 2014-07-21.
Web site: U.S. Solar Market Trends 2012 . Sherwood . Larry . Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) . July 2013 . 16 . 2013-10-11.
Web site: U.S. Solar Market Trends 2011. 17. Sherwood, Larry. Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC). August 2012. 2012-08-16. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20120906231846/http://www.irecusa.org/wp-content/uploads/IRECSolarMarketTrends-2012-web.pdf. 2012-09-06.
Web site: U.S. Solar Market Trends 2010 . Sherwood . Larry . Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) . June 2011 . 2011-06-29.
Web site: U.S. Solar Market Trends 2009 . Sherwood . Larry . Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) . July 2010 . 2010-07-28 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100925184512/http://irecusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/IREC-Solar-Market-Trends-Report-2010_7-27-10_web1.pdf . 2010-09-25 .
Web site: U.S. Solar Market Trends 2008 . Sherwood . Larry . Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) . July 2009 . 2010-07-24 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20091123030109/http://www.irecusa.org/fileadmin/user_upload/NationalOutreachDocs/SolarTrendsReports/IREC_Solar_Market_Trends_Report_2008.pdf . 2009-11-23 .
Web site: U.S. Solar Market Trends 2007 . Sherwood . Larry . Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) . August 2008 . 2010-07-24 .
https://www.seia.org/state-solar-policy/washington-solar Washington Solar
Web site: Electricity Data Browser. U.S. Department of Energy. March 28, 2018. October 1, 2021.