Why Community Solar Exists as Its Own Category
Rooftop solar simply is not an option for a large share of the country. According to NREL research cited by Solar.com, roughly half of US households, 49%, and nearly half of US businesses, 48%, cannot access rooftop solar at all, mainly because they rent rather than own, or their available roof space is not suitable for an array. That is a structural ceiling on rooftop solar’s addressable market, not a temporary financing or awareness problem, and it is the specific gap community and multifamily solar products are built to close.
How Big Community Solar Has Gotten
Solar.com reports that community solar programs are established in at least 26 states, with 14 states plus Washington DC carrying specific policy frameworks that recognize and encourage shared renewable energy. On growth, Solar.com reports the segment expanding from just 66 megawatts added in 2014 toward a projected 3 gigawatts of capacity within the next few years, a real order-of-magnitude jump over roughly a decade. Solar.com is a solar marketplace and installer company rather than an independent research body, and its growth-trajectory figures did not carry a named primary source in the content reviewed for this page, so treat the 26-state and 3-gigawatt figures as reported by Solar.com specifically, not as independently verified research statistics.
A Different Growth Curve Than Rooftop Solar
Individual rooftop installations are forecast down 18% to 21% for the full year of 2026 following the Section 25D tax credit’s expiration, a residential rooftop contraction that has nothing to do with the roughly half of households who could never install rooftop solar in the first place. That population does not shrink with the rooftop market, which is part of why community and multifamily solar sits on a distinct growth trajectory from the single-family rooftop segment covered elsewhere on this site.
The Numbers
Roughly half of US households (49%) and nearly half of US businesses (48%) cannot access rooftop solar at all, mainly due to renting or unsuitable roof space, according to NREL research cited by Solar.com.
Community solar programs are established in at least 26 states, per Solar.com, which is not independently verified against a named primary source.
14 states plus Washington DC carry specific policy frameworks that recognize and encourage shared or community renewable energy, per Solar.com.
Community solar capacity grew from just 66 megawatts added in 2014 toward a projected 3 gigawatts within the next few years, per Solar.com, a figure without a named primary source in the content reviewed.
For comparison, individual rooftop solar installations are forecast down 18% to 21% for the full year of 2026, a contraction unrelated to the population that cannot access rooftop solar at all.
Sources
The external data in this article draws on the sources below. Figures described in the text as estimates or industry triangulations are directional and are not attributed to a single dataset.