PennEnvironment Research and Policy Center recently released a report revealing that Pennsylvania ranks 48th in the nation for growth rate in solar, wind, and geothermal energy over the past decade.

Only Idaho, Washington, and Alaska are ranked lower, according to the report. Pennsylvania’s total energy growth in the past ten years could power less than two percent of homes in the state.

Despite the Commonwealth’s lacking efforts in renewable energy, there have been some positives in recent years, like a more than 4,000% increase in electric vehicle registrations. This puts Pennsylvania in fourteenth place for total EV registrations.

Additionally, Pennsylvania has upped its game in EV charging stations, putting the state at eleventh place in total number of charging ports.

Some local groups have led the way in implementing clean energy.

The SEF Net Zero Building in Lehigh County is a unique zero energy office building serving as the headquarters for the Sustainable Energy Fund. It includes 450 rooftop solar panels, an all-electric heat pump system, solar water heaters, and water efficient toilets.

In Northampton County, the Crayola Solar Farm has 33,000 solar panels covering twenty acres of land. The energy produced here is used to make 3 billion crayons and 700 million markers by Crayola every year. The company reached their goal of using 100% renewable energy by 2020.

PennEnvironment is encouraging the passage of legislation which would require utility companies to get at least 35% of their power from sources like wind and solar by 2035, and would require the state’s largest polluters to pay for their emissions, providing funds that would be invested in clean energy projects.