Vermont set a goal of having 20% of its annual electricity come from solar by 2025. It will probably miss that goal by as much as one-half, even though it has installed a lot more solar than New Hampshire.
Energy Central has the story (here).
Vermont would have to reach one gigawatt of solar capacity by 2025 to meet its goal, according to the report. To do that, new installations would have to average out to about 100 megawatts per year. So far, no year has seen that much growth. In 2016, 75 megawatts were added. If growth continues at the pace it has seen in the past two years, according to the report, Vermont will fail to meet its 2025 goal by 50%.
Changing federal and state incentives – i.e., money – are given as the main reason.
This is a bit surprising because Vermont is generally seen as a solar leader. It has the fifth highest percentage of electricity produced by solar of any state, behind California (of course), Massachusetts, Hawaii and Nevada. New Hampshire is so far down that chart that I don’t know where it lands. We have less than one-third as much solar installed as Vermont (and we use a lot more electricity).
Return to the Concord Monitor