What's Blocking the Sun? Solar Photovoltaics for the U.S. Commercial Market

The document examines the U.S. commercial solar PV market, noting that while commercial real estate accounts for 36 percent of national electricity consumption, installations are heavily concentrated in only five states. It identifies economic and regulatory hurdles preventing wider adoption, noting that PV has not yet reached cost parity with traditional power generation without a carbon price. The paper proposes solutions such as regulatory reform and new financing mechanisms, offering 18 strategic recommendations to expand the market.

• Commercial real estate in the United States represents a significant opportunity for solar PV growth, as the businesses occupying these spaces account for 36 percent of the country's electricity consumption.
• Solar PV adoption in the commercial sector is highly geographically concentrated, with over 90 percent of installed capacity located in just five states, typically where there are strong financial incentives and few regulatory barriers to distributed generation.
• The primary obstacles to solar PV deployment are economic and regulatory; specifically, solar PV has not achieved cost parity with traditional power generation in the absence of a price on carbon.
• While the policy environment has improved since 2008, federal support is considered less certain after 2010 and various regulatory barriers persist at the state level.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). What's Blocking the Sun? Solar Photovoltaics for the U.S. Commercial Market. https://www.wri.org/research/whats-blocking-sun-solar-photovoltaics-us-commercial-market

Chicago

World Resources Institute. What's Blocking the Sun? Solar Photovoltaics for the U.S. Commercial Market. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/whats-blocking-sun-solar-photovoltaics-us-commercial-market.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=What's Blocking the Sun? Solar Photovoltaics for the U.S. Commercial Market |url=https://www.wri.org/research/whats-blocking-sun-solar-photovoltaics-us-commercial-market |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendwhats, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{What's Blocking the Sun? Solar Photovoltaics for the U.S. Commercial Market}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/whats-blocking-sun-solar-photovoltaics-us-commercial-market}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }