Solar Means Business 2017

Each of the top 3 companies held on to their 2016 positions, but each with significant additions:
- Target: 203.5 Megawatts (MW) (up from 147.5 MW in 2016 report)
- Walmart: 149.4 MW (up from 145 MW in 2016 report)
- Prologis: 120.7 MW (up from 108 MW in 2016 report)
2017 was the 3rd-largest year for installations by America’s top companies, with 325 MW installed. Growth was led primarily by falling costs and changes to incentive programs in key states.
- 2017 grew 2% over 2016, and 43% over 2015
Solar Means Business database has expanded as installations grow, companies take greater interest in making data available and research methods improve
- Now tracking 2,562 MW of commercial projects across nearly 7,400 project sites and representing more than 4,000 companies
- Up from 1,092 MW and 1,947 project sites in the 2016 report
The systems tracked in this report generate 3.2 million megawatt hours of electricity each year, enough to power 402,000 homes and offset 2.4 million metric tons of CO2 annually
While commercial adoption has increased generally, we are seeing increased procurement of large off-site projects, which are not tracked in this report. These projects allow companies to offset a bigger portion of their electricity use – which is of growing importance to tech firms like Microsoft, Apple, Facebook and Amazon Web Services

Solar Means Business tracks solar adoption by companies at U.S. facilities
- The report focuses on America’s largest companies, but includes available data for companies of all sizes
- Report covers systems installed by the end of 2017
6th annual edition of this report
This report does not represent a comprehensive look at all commercial solar activity in the U.S. Instead, this report focuses on on-site solar installations at the country’s largest and most recognizable companies
- Report based on system-level data for nearly 7,400 systems
- Data in this report captures roughly 22% of all 2017 commercial solar activity
- Report does not include data for most off-site solar installations, which have grown in number in recent years (31 currently in operation according to GTM Research). The multi-party nature of many of these projects makes it difficult to assign project specifics (solar capacity amounts, environmental attributes, etc.) to certain companies.
Data comes from a variety of sources:
- Directly from the system owners
- From installers, with permission of system owners
- From publicly available data sources such as state regulatory bodies
All data in this report can be cited to SEIA Solar Means Business 2017 unless otherwise noted

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