The Quiet Revolution in Residential Solar
- Feb 15
- 6 min read
Demand Is Strong for Rooftop Photovoltaic Panels
In 2025, more than 1 million residential solar systems were installed in the United States, which means the country is now looking at an estimated 5.7 million solar systems. In 2022, these systems were already generating a whopping 61,281 GWh of electricity.
Rooftop solar is quietly transforming how people get electricity, and SolarTech, a solar company based in El Cajon, California, was curious to learn why people were switching to solar. To find out, they conducted a survey of 2,000 American homeowners.
“The results are actually pretty eye-opening,” says Nick Hofer, SolarTech’s chief strategy officer. “Seventy percent of the homeowners we surveyed either already have solar installed on their homes or are actively looking to install solar.”
Moreover, out of that 70%, 18% already have solar—which indicates the likelihood of a strong surge for rooftop solar in coming years.
In the early days (not so long ago), there was more of an environmental motive behind the early adopters’ passion for solar, with energy costs and independence from the grid being secondary concerns.
“That's flipped,” says Hofer. “Now people are looking for energy independence.”
Energy independence has two sides. One is that fully 51% of those surveyed said they are interested in solar power because of increasing utility costs. Another 21% of respondents said they are seeking freedom from possible grid fluctuations.
Defying Utility Dependence
If there is one consistent theme over time, it’s North Americans’ and Europeans’ high levels of disdain for utility companies and ever-growing utility bills. This is fueling the very practical desire to cut energy expenses.
According to the SolarTech report, “Two-thirds of homeowners (66%) agree that owning solar feels like ‘taking control back’ from utilities, reflecting how energy autonomy has become part of the modern homeowner mindset.”
But environmental issues as a motivator have not disappeared; the survey found that 15% say the reason they want to go solar is to help the environment.
Fully 78% also expressed concerns about grid reliability. The concerns are not unfounded. Between 2017 and 2019, California experienced more than 50,000 blackouts, impacting “the equivalent of 51 million customers,” according to a report by Bloom Energy Corp. and PowerOutage.us. While California has worked in recent years to eliminate blackouts, the California Energy Commission predicted in 2024 that, when needed, utilities will implement “rolling blackouts.”
Myths Are Slipping Away
Education is making inroads in the adoption of solar, with 49% of the SolarTech survey respondents saying they “are confident or very confident that solar will fully pay for itself over time.”
Still, 47% say clearer information about savings would motivate them to go solar. Hofer says that “61% of the people we surveyed are expecting 10% electrical savings on a month.”
Fifty-five percent of respondents believe solar increases their property value at least 6%, while 21% estimate an increase of 10% in value.
Most of this is not shocking news to solar companies like SolarTech, but it does provide empirical data to back up their intuitions about where consumers are at when it comes to solar. Thus, Hofer doesn’t expect big changes to his company’s marketing strategies as a result of the data.
Solar Neighbors as Influencers
Hofer also confirms that neighbors can be influential in solar decisions. “I'm looking out my window right now [in San Diego, California], and I look over a valley of roofs, and I can see probably two homes that have solar,” he says. “Now, if I were to look at my [own residential] street, I would say there are probably two homes that don't have solar.”
This is apparent in Canada, too. In the Edmonton, Alberta, neighborhood of Blatchford, the largest planned carbon-neutral community in North America, Heather MacKenzie said, “We came in here as the first with solar, but that didn't last long.” The next thing she knew, three of the attached homes in her four-home building had solar, and now there is solar on many other surrounding buildings.
There's no more credible salesperson than a neighbor with their utility bill in hand, Hofer says. “Word of mouth is incredibly strong.”
Favorable Financing Is Key
SolarTech’s survey identifies one more very important factor as well: upfront cost.
In the survey, 47% of respondents say that better financing is the key to expanding small solar. And many experts agree that while solar makes sense and people like solar, there are still significant upfront costs. Many people need to upgrade their roofs to prepare them to handle the hardware, in addition to underwriting the solar panel installations.
Property assessed clean energy (PACE) financing programs, which provide up to 100% of the funding required in long-term loans and which are levied against the property and not the owner, have increased the uptake of solar. Studies have found that good PACE programs can modestly increase rooftop solar adoption, though one study in California found a 108% boost.
Since the savings start in Year 1, this overcomes one of the biggest barriers to adopting solar. The beauty of such financing programs costs the public nothing; the finance companies are simply helping people and businesses make investments with their own money that make economic sense.
In 2024, 54% of people in the US who installed solar on their homes secured a loan or paid cash, while 46% entered into a lease or Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) arrangement.
The federal solar tax credit for homeowners was shut down in 2025, leaving only the Clean Electricity Tax Credit of 30% available to businesses, but just for two more years. This means only so-called third-party–owned systems (leased or PPA systems) qualify. But the leasing companies are also now facing increasing restrictions on foreign-sourced materials, which could erase any benefits of the tax credit.
Martyna Kowalczyk of the Solartime YouTube Channel advises caution when entering into lease or PPA agreements in 2026. She has produced a video, “STOP Before You Lease Solar in 2026! Home Solar Lease 2026 Explained,” to examine the issue.
Solar can still save a homeowner money, but research is always needed before signing on the dotted line.
Where Is Rooftop Solar Growing?
In some jurisdictions, solar power, combined with high levels of energy efficiency, is producing net-zero homes that can cost nothing in terms of utilities.
Small-scale solar is growing all over the US, but California is the runaway leader, with 21,668 GW of small-scale solar installed. Arizona, New York, Massachusetts, Texas, and Florida are also strongholds of solar usage.
Residential solar installations grew at 30% per year from 2020 to 2023, when 1.18 million systems were installed. Installations then sagged to 800,000 in 2024, due to changing policies and high interest rates, and then began rebounding in 2025, topping out at 1 million installations. Projections see 18% growth in 2026.
Perhaps surprisingly, residential solar systems may be small at 5–10 or more kilowatts, but together they make up almost 15% of total US solar capacity.
At utility scale, solar met an astonishing 61% of electricity demand growth in 2025, making it the number one new source of electricity by far.
Battery storage is also growing, according to Energy Storage News, which means more homes are able to use their solar-generated energy into the night. Batteries are believed to be the next big step in the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables.
Growth in solar power is spreading around the world. China leads rooftop solar, having installed 120 gigawatts in 2024, and Australia leads the world in per capita rooftop solar installation. Germany has more than 5 million rooftop solar systems, while the Netherlands leads in per capita rooftop solar in Europe.
Rooftop solar is also growing fast in emerging markets in Pakistan, Brazil, sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe. In India, deployment is rapid, and the nation has a goal of 10 million rooftops.
All told, while solar has high upfront costs if a homeowner is buying solar panels, there are virtually no fuel costs over the life of the system. This—plus energy security—make solar very attractive for individuals, businesses, and countries now deeply concerned over the changing world order and uncertain energy prices.
*David Dodge is an environmental journalist, photojournalist, and the host and producer of GreenEnergyFutures.ca, a series of micro-documentaries on clean energy, transportation, and buildings. He’s worked for newspapers and published magazines and produced more than 400 award-winning EcoFile radio programs on sustainability for CKUA Radio.
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