2026 State Solar Permitting Rankings

Notable patterns in the data

Where the moratoria concentrate. The Midwest holds 8 of the 12 active moratoria nationally, across 1,055 counties — Kansas, Iowa and Indiana account for most of them. Its A/B rate is 54%, against 59% in the West, the most permissive region by that measure. So this is not a uniformly hostile region: it is a polarized one, where the farmland-versus-solar conflict plays out in concentrated patches rather than across a broad front.

West Virginia at the bottom. West Virginia has only 2% of its 55 counties in the A/B range — the worst ratio among the contiguous 48 states. The state's coal and gas heritage and the absence of a meaningful RPS framework have produced a county-level environment that is broadly resistant, not just patchily so.

New England is more permissive than it looks. Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island all rank in the top 10 nationally. Small county count limits statistical noise, but these states have taken an ordinance path (limited municipal solar restrictions, strong state preemption) that reduces local friction even where community opposition exists.

All 50 states ranked

Sorted by median county score (lowest = most permissive). Click any state to view its full county table.

State policy tier reflects the state's Renewable Portfolio Standard framework: Favorable = strong RPS target; Hostile = no RPS or active anti-renewable legislation; Neutral = weak or partial RPS. This contributes a modest 10% to the score — local ordinances and organized opposition weigh much more.

What to do with this ranking

This ranking is a state-level screen, not a site-selection tool. A state in the top 10 still has counties across the full risk spectrum — the median tells you the center of gravity, not what any individual county looks like. Use it to prioritize which states' county-level data to dig into first, not to eliminate states without going deeper.

The A/B percentage is the most actionable number for early-stage screening: it tells you what fraction of a state's counties are working with, not against, a developer at the ordinance level. A state with 85% A/B counties leaves you many paths; a state with 30% leaves you a short list. The grade distribution bar shows the same thing visually — a bar that's mostly green leaves you options; significant orange or red means you'll be navigating around concentrations of risk.

How to read this ranking

Why median instead of average? A small number of very high-risk counties — moratoria, outright bans — pull the mean upward in ways that don't reflect the typical county. The median gives you the experience of the middle county, which is a better read on whether the state is broadly open.

What does the grade bar tell you? It shows the share of counties in each grade band — green (A/B) on the left, red (D/F) on the right. A bar that's mostly green means the state's counties lean permissive across the board. Significant red on the right means meaningful resistance pockets exist even if the median looks acceptable.

What's the A/B percentage for? It's the practical site-selection filter: how much of a state's county list is actually workable at the ordinance level? A state at 85% A/B gives you options; a state at 30% gives you a short list to work from.

Methodology note

Scores are computed as 30% Community Opposition + 24% Compliance Stringency + 16% Regulatory Trajectory + 12% Market Saturation + 10% State RPS + 8% Data Uncertainty. Counties with active utility-scale solar moratoria are capped at score 100 (grade F); where a county is missing a signal, that factor's weight is renormalized rather than zero-filled. State rankings use the median of county scores within the state. Full methodology →