Solar energy is proving to be an affordable source of clean electricity for more US businesses, and adoption rates are rapidly growing, with solar installations seeing 59% growth in just the last year alone.

According to the latest version of a study by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), titled Solar Means Business, US businesses are choosing solar energy at record rates, and not because they're all granola-eating treehuggers, but because it makes sense to their bottom line. Thanks in part to rapidly falling solar costs, which for commercial projects has dropped almost 30% over the last three years, and which hit a low of just a hair over $3 per watt earlier this year, going solar is a cost-effective method of not only reducing a company's carbon footprint, but also reducing its overall costs.

This year's Solar Means Business study, which looks at "major commercial solar projects" as well as ranking the top corporate solar energy users, covered more than 1,680 commercial solar systems across the country, with a combined generating capacity of some 907 MW. This is said to be the equivalent of powering more than 158,000 average homes, and to equal an offset of some 890,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually.

"While solar has long been viewed as an environmentally responsible energy choice, businesses now deploy solar because it is a smart fiscal choice as well. In doing so, these companies have proven the viability of solar technology, showing that it is ready now to provide low-cost power generation on an increasingly large scale. With the right policies in place, solar will continue to play a crucial role in moving America’s economy forward." - SEIA

"These blue-chip companies have realized investing in solar is a common-sense, cost-effective decision that pays dividends for both the environment and their bottom lines. Not only are they helping to create thousands of American jobs in solar, the nearly 1,700 systems currently in operation are generating enough clean, reliable electricity to offset nearly 890,000 metric tons of harmful carbon emissions a year." - Rhone Resch, SEIA President and CEO