Dataset updated . Sources: LBNL Tracking the Sun + city permit records + state programs + USGS/EIA utility-scale.
Rooftop & residential
Homeowners & local installers
4,662,096 homes and small systems — search by your county and installer, compare prices and adoption. Search residential →
Commercial & utility-scale
Developers, EPCs & asset owners
Utility plants and C&I projects — by developer, owner, capacity and equipment. Search large projects →
The installer census
Largest solar installers
| # | Installer | Installs | Median $/W |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sunrun | 482,991 | $4.27/W |
| 2 | Tesla | 376,072 | $3.24/W |
| 3 | Sunpower | 156,257 | $4.34/W |
| 4 | redacted | 155,695 | — |
| 5 | Freedom Forever | 66,375 | $4.03/W |
| 6 | Trinity Solar | 57,653 | $3.72/W |
| 7 | Titan Solar | 46,629 | $4.40/W |
| 8 | Sungevity | 40,308 | $3.29/W |
| 9 | Semper Solaris | 36,647 | $4.13/W |
| 10 | Bright Ops | 36,630 | $4.27/W |
By state
Installations by state
| State | Installs | Capacity | Median $/W |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 2,413,296 | 40.5 GW | $4.25/W |
| Arizona | 375,282 | 6.6 GW | $4.20/W |
| Texas | 350,101 | 8.0 GW | $3.86/W |
| New Jersey | 232,326 | 7.4 GW | $4.05/W |
| New York | 223,144 | 22.6 GW | $4.15/W |
| Massachusetts | 159,720 | 8.6 GW | $4.15/W |
| Colorado | 116,390 | 2.9 GW | $4.35/W |
| Illinois | 115,165 | 7.2 GW | $2.21/W |
| Maryland | 110,805 | 2.3 GW | $3.60/W |
| New Mexico | 68,507 | 2.3 GW | $4.51/W |
Price signal
Median installed price by year
| Year | Installs | Median $/W | Median size | TPO share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 262,460 | $4.00/W | 6.58 kW | 28% |
| 2018 | 274,294 | $3.86/W | 6.67 kW | 24% |
| 2019 | 303,379 | $3.80/W | 6.7 kW | 25% |
| 2020 | 319,093 | $3.84/W | 6.91 kW | 24% |
| 2021 | 406,032 | $3.89/W | 7.2 kW | 19% |
| 2022 | 523,964 | $4.05/W | 7.4 kW | 16% |
| 2023 | 565,223 | $4.13/W | 7.48 kW | 17% |
| 2024 | 358,904 | $4.22/W | 7.29 kW | 26% |
| 2025 | 333,105 | $4.15/W | 7.8 kW | 28% |
| 2026 | 5,216 | $2.00/W | 18.96 kW | 0% |
About the census
What PanelCensus is
PanelCensus is a free public census of US solar — rooftop to utility-scale. The spine is LBNL's Tracking the Sun, the deepest public dataset of distributed PV, merged and deduplicated with city permit records, state incentive-program data and USGS/EIA utility-scale plant registers. None of these is a browsable public resource on its own, and there is no standardized public record of solar installers: marketplaces gate their listings behind lead-gen, review sites cover only the long tail thinly, and the federal government keeps no installer registry at all.
We resolve millions of raw installation records into one profile per installer — install volume by year, median system size and price, third-party-ownership share, first and last recorded install, and service geography down to the county — cross-linked to state and county solar pages and national rankings. Provenance and freshness are first-class: every figure traces to a public research dataset and carries its update date.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the largest solar installer in the United States?
Sunrun has the most recorded installations in the census with 482,991 systems, ahead of Tesla (376,072). See the full largest-installers ranking.
How much does solar cost per watt in the US?
The median installed price across 3,144,135 priced systems in the dataset is $4.16/W (pre-incentive). Median prices by year and by state are on the price-trends page.
How many solar installations are recorded in the US?
PanelCensus currently catalogues 4,662,096 PV installations totalling 183.1 GW across 51 states (including DC) — LBNL's Tracking the Sun research dataset merged (and deduplicated) with city permit records, state incentive programs and USGS/EIA utility-scale data. One profile page per resolved installer.
Why do the most recent years show fewer installations?
Install counts for the last year or two fill in gradually. The spine of the census is LBNL's Tracking the Sun, a research dataset released once a year that compiles state and utility program records — which themselves report on a one-to-two-year lag. Each annual edition both revises earlier years upward and extends coverage forward, so recent years keep rising as later editions land. It is a reporting lag, not a real decline in solar installs.
How large is US utility-scale solar in the census?
12,862 utility-scale plants totalling 245.8 GW of nameplate capacity, from USGS USPVDB and EIA-860 public data. The largest-plants ranking lists the top 100 by MW.
What share of home solar is third-party owned?
23% of recorded installations are third-party owned (lease/PPA). The TPO-share ranking breaks this down by state and year.
Data access
Request full data access
Bulk exports, the full Tracking-the-Sun-derived dataset, and API access — installations, system sizes, prices and installers. Tell us where to reach you.
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