Oklahoma’s national ranking for installed solar capacity saw a slight improvement in the first part of 2021 according to a quarterly report this week from the Solar Energy Industries Association.
Oklahoma ranked 36th nationally for its solar installations, up from 40 in the first quarter of 2020 and markedly better than the 47th ranking in 2019.
Kansas fell from 35th in 2020 to 40 in the first quarter of this year. Missouri improved from 37 a year ago to 28 this year while Arkansas fell from 23 last year to 34 this year.
Texas is ranked number one after sitting in the number two position for the past two years. California is second nationally.
The SEIA reported the national solar market installed more than 5 gigawatts of solar capacity in the first quarter of the year, a 46% increase over the first quarter of 2020 and the largest first quarter amount on record.
As a result of the new installations, the national solar market has surpassed 100 GW of installed capacity, double the size of the industry in the past 3 and a half years.
Despite the record increase, the report stated that the industry, like many others nationally is facing supply chain problems. Manufacturers report supply challenges for solar equipment such as polysilicon, steel, aluminum and semiconductor chips.