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Photo by Noah Berger for The New York Times
SAN FRANCISCO — A decade ago, only 500 rooftops in California boasted solar panels that harvest the sun’s energy. Today, there are nearly 50,000 solar-panel installations in the state, according to a report to be issued Thursday by the research and lobbying group Environment California.
As a result, California, the longtime national leader in solar energy, has a capacity of more than 500 megawatts of solar power at peak periods in the early afternoon — the same as a major power plant.
The solar capacity in California grew by a third from 2007 to 2008. It now represents about two-thirds of the national total, according to a different report that is being prepared by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, a nonprofit group promoting expansion of solar energy.
As the Obama administration pushes for a national shift to more renewable energy sources, California’s example is therefore being closely watched. Nationally, the states in which solar installations are spreading fastest are those that provide the most generous subsidies for them, industry experts agree.