Only Three States Grew Community Solar More Than 1% in Q2 2026
- Analysis Policy & Markets State & Local Regulation
Marin Holt
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- 10 minutes read
- New Jersey, New York and Oregon were the only states with community solar capacity growth above 1% in Q2 2026, a third straight quarter
- New Jersey grew 17% and added 38 MW, the largest proportional gain in the nation
- New York grew 7% and added 202 MW, while Oregon grew 2% on 2 MW
- Maine formally ended its community solar program in December 2025
Community solar capacity grew by more than 1% in only three states last quarter. New Jersey, New York and Oregon cleared that bar in the second quarter of 2026, according to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance Community Solar Tracker. No other state did. It was the third quarter running that the same three stood alone above the line.
New Jersey posted the largest proportional gain in the country at 17%, adding 38 MW. New York grew 7% and added 202 MW, the biggest absolute addition of the three. Oregon grew 2% on 2 MW.
The rest of the map is flat or shrinking. ILSR points to market contractions, regulatory delays and interconnection queue backlogs outside the mature programs. The concentration is already severe. Roughly 91% of cumulative US community solar capacity sits in the top 10 states. That figure comes from National Renewable Energy Laboratory data reported by pv magazine USA.
Maine shows what a policy reversal does to a pipeline. The state formally ended its community solar program in December 2025. ILSR still carries Maine in the tracker, because projects already under development while the program existed can still reach commercial operation.
The New York figures rest on a compensation structure rather than a flat retail credit. The state pays community solar through the Value of Distributed Energy Resources framework, known as the value stack. It prices wholesale energy value, avoided distribution costs, locational grid relief and quantifiable environmental benefits. Approved facilities hold those tariff components under 25-year contracts.
Subscriber terms are set in rule rather than left to developers. Subscriptions run from 1,000 kWh a year up to 100% of a customer’s historic annual use. Early termination fees are capped at $200. Consolidated billing is mandatory, carries no added fee, and must deliver a minimum 5% bill savings rate. The Solar for All program layers on bill discounts up to $180 a year for households at or below 60% of state median income. Projects larger than 1 MW approved after April 2022 must meet state prevailing wage requirements.
The New Jersey gain tracks its move out of a pilot. The permanent Community Solar Energy Program is run by the state Board of Public Utilities. It covers PSE&G, Jersey Central Power & Light, Atlantic City Electric and Rockland Electric Company.
Why It Matters
The common thread across all three growing states is a program written down and built to last. Mandated non-utility ownership, a defined compensation formula and enforceable subscriber protections give a lender something to underwrite. Developers deciding where to place capital in 2027 can read the tracker as a map of which rulebooks survive contact with an interconnection queue. The flat states are not short of sunlight or short of demand. They are short of a rulebook that tells a financier what a subscriber is worth over 25 years.
Critical Perspective
The 1% bar flatters a very uneven set of results. Oregon clears it at 2%, and that 2% is 2 MW. New York clears it at 7%, and that is 202 MW. Grouping the three states as the market’s growth engines puts a rounding error and a substantial build in the same bucket. A percentage threshold applied to very different bases will keep producing that distortion.
The treatment of Maine deserves scrutiny too. ILSR keeps Maine in the data after the program formally ended in December 2025, on the grounds that projects already under development may still energize. That is defensible bookkeeping. It also means the national total carries capacity from a state with no policy left to replace it.
The concentration figure is the real warning. If roughly 91% of US community solar sits in ten states, then the national trend line is mostly a readout of a few legislatures. Read that way, the quarterly number tracks political durability more than it tracks demand, cost or sunlight.
Sources
- pv magazine USA
- Institute for Local Self-Reliance Community Solar Tracker
- New Jersey Board of Public Utilities
