INLAND EMPIRE – (INT) – Riverside and San Bernardino counties have become the top region for commercial and residential solar power in California. Fresno is number one for industrial solar power.

These metro areas have contributed to solar’s explosive growth in the state, increasing 1,378 percent in California between 2009 and 2014.

Widespread embrace of clean technology is one reason the latest edition of Next 10’s California Green Innovation Index finds the state growing in its role as a leader in decoupling economic growth from carbon emissions on a per capita basis.

The Index’s Inland Empire findings include:
· Riverside–San Bernardino–Ontario has more commercial (16,454 kW installed) and residential solar power (137,683 kW installed) than any other region in California.
· Riverside–San Bernardino–Ontario ranks fifth for the number of clean vehicle rebates and sixth for green tech patents in the state.
· Riverside–San Bernardino–Ontario ranks third in population and fifth in GDP, which increased 2.9% between 2013 and 2014.
· With an average commute of over 31 minutes, Riverside–San Bernardino–Ontario drivers suffer the longest commutes among residents of any of the 26 California metro areas studied. That includes famously congested Los Angeles.
· The Inland Empire is ranked 18th in the state for electricity productivity, an important measure of an economy’s decoupling of economic output from its energy use.

Story Date: July 9, 2016