It’s not exactly Earth-shattering news that states with more progressive solar policies have more solar energy capacity than states that don’t. But there are a few correlations between solar policy and economic health that might be worth noting.

Environment America released a report on solar policy and solar capacity this week titled Lighting the Way: The top 10 states that helped drive America’s solar energy boom in 2013.

The report revealed that while the 10 states with the most installed solar energy capacity per capita account for just 26 percent of the nation’s population, they host 87 percent of the country’s solar power.

The common ground for the top 10 isn’t abundance of sunshine, high power rates or a density of environmentally minded residents. The common ground is policy.

Nine of the 10 states allow for creative financing, have strong statewide interconnection policies and robust net metering policies that require utility companies to buy excess power produced by people and businesses with solar panels at the retail rate or higher. All 10 states have renewable energy portfolio standards that require utility companies to get a certain percentage of the electricity they sell from renewable sources.

While some of those state policies have come under fire from utilities and their trade organization – the Edison Electric Group – there are some interesting parallels between Environment America’s top 10 list of states with the most solar, the Solar Job Census top 10 list of states with most new solar jobs in 2013 and the Kiplinger list of the top 10 states with most job growth (in general) in 2013.

Arizona, Colorado and North Carolina appear on all three lists. Most of the other states show up in two lists. Between the three top 10 lists, there are 17 states listed. That leaves the other 33 in the cool shadows of the states that are shining in the light of a new solar-powered economic surge.

Check out the lists and make your own conclusions:

Top 10 states with the most general job growth in 2013

1. Utah
2. Nevada
3. Hawaii
4. South Carolina
5. Colorado
6. Idaho
7. Florida
8. Texas
9. North Carolina
10. Arizona

Top 10 states with the most solar job growth in 2013

1. California
2. Arizona
3. New Jersey
4. Massachusetts
5. New York
6. Texas
7. Florida
8. Ohio
9. Colorado
10. North Carolina

Top 10 states with the most installed solar per capita

1. Arizona
2. Hawaii
3. Nevada
4. California
5. New Jersey
6. New Mexico
7. Delaware
8. Massachusetts
9. Colorado
10. North Carolina