Third party ownership accounts for approximately 30 pct of distributed solar capacity
Third parties own about 30 percent, or 3.7 gigawatts, of all distributed solar capacity in the United States, which totaled 12.3 GW as of September, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said.
Private company, third-party owners provide either solar electricity or equipment for building owners or tenants. The three main options for distributed solar ownership includes third-party ownership (TPO), utility/public financing or self-financing.
TPOs are energy service providers that commonly enter into either power purchase agreements or solar leases. TPO ownership is most common in the residential sector as opposed to the commercial and industrial (C&I) sectors.
TPOs own 44 percent of distributed solar capacity in the residential sector, compared with 11 percent in the C&I sectors. The residential sector accounts for 56 percent of distributed solar capacity but 84 percent of third-party-owned solar capacity, according to EIA data.
The largest share of TPO capacity is found in Arizona and Maryland, with over half of the states’ total distributed solar capacity belonging to TPOs. The state of California represents the highest distributed solar capacity at 4.9 GW.
