By the Numbers: Santee Solar Power

Santee's solar power impact has been tallied along with more than 720 California cities ranked in a recently released report by Environment California, but Santee doesn't show up alongside other East County cities in some of the highest ranked lists.

With 158 residential photovoltaic (solar-power) sytems in town—and 2,150 total capacity in kilowatt-hours, Santee comes close to ranking in the top 50 cities on some aspects, but didn't quite cut it.

The neighboring cities of La Mesa and El Cajon find themselves high on the lists, and San Diego found itself as No. 1 in several categories.

Santee had .003 solar systems per resident— low on the list.

Santee ranks high in San Diego County in terms of solar kilowatt-hours per resident at .04, likely because of the large  that won an last year. Other solar systems in Santee include a relatively new set up at Hill Creek School and a good sized bank of panels on top of Sonrise Church.

San Diego, by comparison, had .028 kilowatt-hours per resident, and La Mesa .047.

Santee is steadily adopting solar power, in one week in November Santee wa s construction projects in the county, and the  continues to show new solar projects popping up in town. In fact, the  recently publicized a  presesented by McWire Electric, a local solar installation company.

San Diego has more rooftop solar systems and more 
solar generating capacity than any other city in California, according to the study released Tuesday.

San Diego has 4,507 rooftop systems that have been installed, compared to a little more than 4,000 in runner-up Los Angeles, a city with a much larger 
population, said the report.

San Jose, San Francisco and Fresno rounded-out the top five.

Within San Diego County, Escondido ranked 17th with 709 systems, Poway was 26th with 544 and El Cajon was 28th with 533.
  

In generating capacity, San Diego was tops with 36,775 kilowatt-hours that are tied to the electrical grid, just ahead of Los Angeles. Poway ranked 41st, Escondido was 48th and Chula Vista 50th.

“San Diego didn't become the state's No. 1 solar city by
 happenstance—it was the result of local policies and programs that encourage investment in solar power,” Mayor Jerry Sanders said.  “It’s good for our
environment, it's good for our reputation as a city that embraces innovation, and it’s been great for our economy.”
  

According to the report, San Diego would rank among the top 25 countries in the world in solar generation capacity.

City News Service contributed to this report.