Donald Trump may have pulled his country out of the Paris Agreement but that doesn’t mean the entire United States has simply given up on sustainable development. Following the withdrawal of the Federal Government from the international climate accords, a number of US states have shown no hesitation in taking up the baton.  Accordingly, California’s state legislature recently became the very first to pass an ambitious bill which requires solar panels to be installed on every new-build house. Several towns in the Golden State had already made it mandatory to install solar panels on certain types of new residential property, while others have made commitments to use clean energy sources for their entire energy needs.  Meanwhile other states, such as New Jersey and Massachusetts, plus municipal authorities, including Washington DC, are contemplating drafting new legislation designed to ensure that all newly constructed buildings are able to install solar panels.

However, the new legislation passed by the Golden State is by far the most ambitious ever drafted on US soil, requiring that every new house must be equipped with two to three kilowatts of installed solar power generation capacity, depending on the size of the property. This could be a system installed at each individual house or shared with other residences in the same street, terrace or block. This legislative measure is intended to enable California to attain the targets set for renewable energy use, namely that half of all electricity consumption in the state should be generated form carbon-free sources by 2030. The Golden State is already out in front in the US in terms of solar power, which currently covers over 16% of all electricity requirements, with an industry employing 86,000 people. Given that an average of 80,000 new residences are built every year, the new law is likely to help boost these figures considerably.