Skip to Content

Location: California

California is one of the top energy generating states in the nation. Natural gas accounts for nearly half of all electricity generation in the state. However, California has a wide renewable energy portfolio. California leads the nation in solar power generation and has a goal to achieve 33% energy generation from renewable sources by 2020. Pacific Gas & Electric, the state's largest energy utility, provides electricity to nearly two-thirds of the state. Headquartered in San Francisco, PG&E is one of four regulated, investor-owned utilities (IOU)s in California. For more information on California energy, see the graphs below.

Usage for California

Monthly average household energy usage in CA compared to the national average.

Solar Score for California

California Solar Score: 78

Learn More

The Solar Score represents how good of a candidate you are for a home solar installation. We take into account a combination of factors specific to your area. Using these factors, we can determine how long it would take for a home solar installation to pay for itself. has received a solar score of . Below is a description for each area of the graph:

    • Red = “Not Viable” meaning a solar installation would not be cost-effective.
    • Yellow = “Viable” meaning a solar installation would pay for itself over time.
    • Green = “Very Viable” meaning a solar installation would pay for itself quickly and has large savings potential.
get my solar quote

Sources for California

California produces energy from a variety of sources. Here are the state’s current energy sources and energy production trends.

  • Over half of CA energy generation comes from natural gas
  • California has one the largest portfolio of renewable energy in the US
  • CA leads the nation in renewable energy generation from solar power
  • There is one nuclear power plants still in operation in CA that accounts for 13% of generation

Locations

Looking for a specific city in California? Check out our featured cities below for more specific energy usage information.

see all locations

Research

Compare Electricity is dedicated to keeping you current and up to date with industry leading research. View all the latest news, articles and videos for your location below:

  • read

    Regulators Give Utilities Permission to Cut Power to Hundreds of Thousands to Prevent Wildfires

see all research
Back to top