Rooftop solar power installations nearly tripled in Sacramento during the past two years, making it the fastest-growing solar city in the state.

In a report released today, Environment California Research & Policy Center said local residents and businesses have installed nearly 16 megawatts of solar capacity, enough to power 12,000 homes.

In 2009, Sacramento's rooftop solar capacity was about 5.5 megawatts.

"No other big city in the state has seen this kind of growth during the past two years," said Bernadette Del Chiaro, director of clean energy programs at Environment California, an environmental advocacy group.

The report counted the number of projects and the total solar capacity installed in dozens of cities around the state.

The study did not include big, utility-scale projects such as the 60-megawatt and 30-megawatt solar farms that are being built in Elk Grove by Recurrent Energy of San Francisco and Constellation Energy of Baltimore.

Even without those big projects, Sacramento was among the leaders in the state. It was seventh in the state in terms of total solar capacity.

San Diego was tops in the state with more than 37 megawatts of rooftop solar, followed by Los Angeles with 36 megawatts.

Several other cities in the Sacramento region also made the state's top 30 list.

Rancho Cordova, with 6.4 megawatts in solar capacity, was ranked 15th. Auburn and Woodland, both with over 5.5 megawatts of rooftop solar projects, were listed at 26th and 28th in the report.

Del Chiaro credited policies such as the state's Million Solar Roofs Initiative, now part of the "Go Solar California" campaign, for promoting residential projects in the region.

She also cited policies by local electric utilities to promote big solar installations at factories, at warehouses and on the roofs of big-box retail outlets.

Several industrial solar projects such as Aerojet's 6-megawatt solar facility at its Rancho Cordova headquarters and Intel Corp.'s 1-megawatt solar photovoltaic system at its Folsom campus have come on line in recent years.

Sacramento, meanwhile, is in the midst of installing 8,000 solar panels at four of its buildings, including City Hall. The project will eventually generate enough electricity to serve 250 homes.

Mayor Kevin Johnson, who will attend a public presentation of the Environment California study at St. Francis High School today, said in a press release that the report recognizes efforts by the local community and its leaders to "make clean energy a priority."

"We see the results … in projects throughout our region," he said.

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