Last week, Clean Edge published a report titled the “U.S. Clean Tech Leadership Index” (“Index”) that ranked Massachusetts as the second state and Boston as the seventh metro area in the U.S. according to its scoring methodology. The Index contains findings from the 2016 editions of Clean Edge’s State and Metro Indices, and serves as a tool for regional comparative research. The Index tracks activity in the U.S. based on a wide range of underlying industry indicators at state and metro levels.

The state index offers scores for all 50 states, derived from more than 70 state-based indicators organized into three areas of technology, policy, and capital. The metro index uses more than 30 metro-based indicators to calculate scores for the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan statistical areas divided into four areas of green buildings, advanced transportation, clean electricity & carbon management, and clean-tech, investment, innovation & workforce. To read more about the Index and analysis, read on!

This year’s index traces developments of the U.S.’s accelerated transition and a broader international movement toward a clean-energy economy. In 2015, utility-scale wind and solar power accounted for a record 62 percent of all new electric generation capacity added in the U.S., up from 47 percent the prior year. The U.S. also added 8.2 GW of new wind capacity and 2.6 new GW of utility-scale solar in 2015 for a combined capacity of 10GW in renewables compared to 6 GW of new natural-gas fired power additions. Moreover, U.S. states and metro areas have continued to expand their clean-tech activities amidst international and national developments such as the December 2015 Paris climate agreement and the extension of federal wind and solar tax credits.

In the 2016 state index, Massachusetts ranks second for the fourth consecutive year. Despite a slight drop in its score from 78.8 to 76, it narrowed the gap behind California from 15.2 points to 13.7. Although California took Massachusetts’ number one rank in Policy for the first time since 2012, Massachusetts received a number one ranking in Capital and a two-place rise to sixth in Technology. In the 2016 metro index, Boston ranks seventh. Boston added nearly 11 points to the Green Buildings category score from last year to place third in the category and edge out Seattle for the number seventh metro ranking spot. To learn more about the Index, read the report here.