Lumen Energy presents · data from NREL & EIA
America’s largest power plant could be our rooftops.
Federal researchers at NREL — the National Renewable Energy Laboratory — laser-scanned the nation’s rooftops, every kind of building from bungalows to warehouses. Filled with the solar panels shipping in 2026–2030, technically viable roofs could add 1,680 gigawatts of new solar — more than every power plant in America combined.By NREL’s official 2016 assessment, technically viable roofs could add 1,118 gigawatts of new solar — more than the highest peak the grid has ever served. Each dot of light below is a ZIP code’s buildings, waiting. Scroll to see what they could do.
Act I · The scale
Bigger than every power plant combined.
Bigger than the grid’s biggest hour.
Every column rising from the map is a county’s rooftop potential. Together they could generate 2,430 TWh a year — 61% of all the electricity America bought in 2024.
For scale: every utility-scale power plant in the country adds up to 1,230 GW, and the highest demand the grid has ever served at once was 745 GW.
Roof inventory: NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) LiDAR assessment, which assumed 16%-efficient panels. Today’s TOPCon panels are 24% efficient — 50% more watts from the same roof — so figures are scaled 1.5× (official 2016-basis total: 1,118 GW). Official NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) central estimate, 16%-efficient modules — the 2015 standard. Today’s 24% TOPCon panels put 50% more watts on the same roofs. We’ve installed about 60 GW — 3.6% of the ceiling.
Act II · Where it lives
Not in a remote desert. Right above us, where we all use our energy.
Rooftop potential concentrates exactly where the power gets used. Los Angeles County alone could host 58 GW — more rooftop capacity than 39 entire states have in total.
Cook, Harris, Maricopa, Miami-Dade: the tallest columns are simply where America’s buildings already stand. No new land, no new transmission corridors — the real estate is taken care of.
Heights show total county potential in GW (square-root scale). Source: NREL county aggregation of the LiDAR + statistical model.
Act III · Roof by roof
This isn’t a guess. It’s a laser scan.
NREL flew LiDAR over 128 metro areas, covering 23% of US buildings, and modeled every roof plane — tilt, azimuth, shading hour by hour. Statistical models calibrated on that sample extend the estimate to every other county.
The map you’re flying over runs that model across greater Los Angeles — each column is one ZIP code’s measured rooftop capacity. 5,000+ ZIPs carry direct measurements; look up any of them in the explorer below.
Act IV · The commercial prize
Quickest wins are on big, flat and empty commercial roofs.
Warehouses, schools, stores, factories: medium and large commercial & industrial buildings hold 581 GW of rooftop potential on a tiny fraction of America’s roofs. Bigger systems, lower cost per watt, one landlord per decision — this is where rooftop solar scales fastest, and the segment Lumen turns into revenue for building owners.
Source: NREL — the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic Technical Potential in the United States (NREL/TP-6A20-65298). LiDAR flights over 128 cities measured every roof plane ≥10 m² for tilt, azimuth and hour-by-hour shading; validated statistical models extend the inventory to all 3,089 counties, with medium/large splits following the study’s observed LiDAR ratios. Capacity restated by Lumen Energy for the 24%-efficient TOPCon panels shipping today — 1.5× the study’s 2016-era 16% baseline.Shown on the study’s official 16%-efficient module basis. Analysis & visualization: Lumen Energy · rooftopsolaratlas.com
Map columns show medium + large (C&I) potential only — homes excluded. For reference, 84 million small buildings add another 1,100 GW on top.
Act V · Solar leasing is the catalyst
Landlords: get paid to power the grid.
In rooftop community solar, a building owner leases the roof to a solar operator — $0 of capex, rent checks for years, and the panels feed the surrounding neighborhood through the local grid. The roof becomes a tenant that never misses a payment.
Tiers: Lumen market analysis, mid-2026 — community-solar program design, compensation rates, and capacity headroom for commercial rooftop projects. GW figures are each tier’s medium + large building potential. Residential economics are a separate story — explore grid prices and value ratios in the atlas below.
Daybreak
Now it’s your atlas.
Every state, all 3,089 counties, 31,000+ ZIP codes — with the economics on top. Search your ZIP. Rank the states. See what your roof is part of.