Research snapshot · Energy · 13 September 2026

Solar and renewables across the country: 175 towns on the record, the pace easing

This page is a snapshot, cut 13 September 2026, of a topic that moves. Below is the shape of the movement, read from the towns' own meeting records, and the way to get a view of it that stays current.

Solar and other renewable generation on municipal and private land: the ordinances and overlays governing where it may go, decommissioning terms, and the municipal installations and power agreements behind it.Our definition of the class.

Snapshot taken 13 September 2026, based on 323 dated municipal records flagged as solar and renewables, spanning 175 municipalities across 30 states. The topic moves; a later cut supersedes this page.

What this page is for one topic at state or national scope, told as a story: how it arrived, the shape of its movement, a dated snapshot of a moving record, and the door to a view of it that stays current. If it does not, write to us; that is what changes the next edition.

Source documents 3 of 4 on this page link straight to the town's own record. The rest are available on request. Ask for access.

The story so far

The record starts in Maine, 3 November 2004. Since then 175 municipalities in 30 states have put the topic on a meeting record, at very different speeds: Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts hold 68% of the dated events between them.

The last 90 days put 24 meetings on the record, down from 53 in the 90 days before.

It runs through the rooms where budgets and ordinances are made: Planning Board, Select Board and Board of Selectmen.

The shape of the movement

Dated meetings on the record at this scope, quarter by quarter, and the same 90-day count as a rolling line, whose right-hand point is that number. Counts of documents, never a reading of what they decided.
QuarterMeetingsTownsStates
Sep 2025 to Nov 2025221911
Dec 2025 to Feb 2026704614
Mar 2026 to May 2026584313
Jun 2026 to Sep 2026 (current)241910

a rolling 90-day total, so the right-hand point is that same 90-day count. The busiest stretch was Dec 2025 to Feb 2026, with 70 meetings.

Where it is moving30 states

The same topic at different speeds in different states. A state's name opens its own page where one exists.
StateTowns on the recordMeetings, 90 daysLatest
Maine506 ▼ -45.5%2026-08-24
New Hampshire2752026-08-24
Massachusetts263 ▼ -57.1%2026-08-11
Vermont112 ▬ +0.0%2026-06-26
Connecticut82 ▲ +100.0%2026-08-12
New York72 ▼ -33.3%2026-09-08
Pennsylvania612026-06-18
Illinois602026-05-21
Washington lighter read302026-02-23
Kentucky lighter read302025-11-04
Maryland lighter read202026-03-01
Arizona lighter read202026-01-01
Wisconsin lighter read21 new on the record2026-07-08
California lighter read202026-03-18
Utah lighter read202026-04-28

And 15 more states on the record, in an account view.

From the record

The most recent documents behind this page, one per town. Each link opens the town's own file.

8 September 2026 · Kingston, New York Unknown

the agenda, on the town's own site Agenda

24 August 2026 · Jay, Maine Unknown

the agenda, on the town's own site August 24, 2026

24 August 2026 · Canterbury, New Hampshire Board of Selectmen

the minutes, on the town's own site 2026-08-24 Board of Selectmen Minutes DRAFT

12 August 2026 · Mansfield, Connecticut

the agenda, on the town's own site Agenda — 2026-08-12

Companies on this record767 companies, 253 documents

Named in the same documents that carry this topic, read from the record itself: the firms designing, building and advising the work, each with where the record places them:
EversourceAvon, Barrington, Berlin and 10 more
VerizonAlfred, Cambridge, Columbia and 3 more
UnitilBarrington, Canterbury, Danville and 1 more
CPCNHHanover, Kensington, Stratham
AECOMBiddeford, La Mesa, Newark and 1 more
Clean Energy NHBarrington, Berlin, Boscawen and 1 more
Maine DEPNaples, Presque Isle, Turner and 1 more
Algonquin Power & UtilitiesBow, Hanover, Rumford
AVCOGLivermore Falls, Oxford, Wilton
ComcastChester, Plymouth, Skokie
Eversource EnergyBow, Candia, Sandwich
NHSavesHanover, Kensington, Weare
AT&TBiddeford, Rumford, Stratham
Central Maine PowerJefferson, Livermore Falls, Naples
Dead River CompanyOxford, Presque Isle, Wells
DuBois & KingBristol, Chester, Marlborough
SMPDCBiddeford, Kennebunk, York
SolSmartKensington, Skokie, Yarmouth
AvangridRindge, Rumford
Kearsarge EnergyDanville, Milton
Bangor Tire CompanyBrewer
Maine Emergency Management AgencyBrewer
Win-Win Resale StoreBrewer
Advanced Drainage SystemsBiddeford, Rumford
AES CorporationBiddeford, Rumford
AirgasBiddeford, Rumford
AmazonBiddeford, Rumford
American Water WorksBiddeford, Rumford
ArcadisBiddeford, Rumford
C-pacer programBristol, Hanover

And 737 more companies.

The documents naming each, and the threads they sit in, are the account view. If one of these is you, those are your projects on the record. Ask and we will show you every one, and the towns around them, as they move.

A snapshot of a moving record

Everything above is frozen at 13 September 2026; the topic is not. 60 more events on this topic carry no usable date and are counted, never dated. The counts follow where we read most: a town or a state absent here was not read at depth, and absence is not evidence the topic is absent there. A lighter-read state is not a ceiling; where you care about a region, pointing the system there is the first thing an account changes. How coverage is built, and its known limits: municipalalpha.com/methodology.

How we can tell you about it ongoing

We track this topic continuously; this page is one cut of it, taken 13 September 2026. An account turns the snapshot into a working view: every town and every document behind these counts, the thread on each matter as it develops, word of new meetings as they land on the record, your own states and topics side by side, and the data itself when you want it in a table. The towns above are the taste; what each is actually deciding, funding or stalling is the read an account carries.

Each state's name above opens its own page. Counts and dates are computed from the documents on the record; the topic and its definition are ours. This page carries no subscriber content.

Solar and renewables, across the country

from the towns' own meeting records

Scope

Across the country

Area

Energy

every topic in this area

Towns on the record

175

with a dated document on this topic

States on the record

30

counted from the record

Earliest

3 November 2004

the documents' dates

Meetings, last 90 days

24 against 53 before

dated documents

Snapshot cut

13 September 2026

this page's date

A view that stays current

ask for yours