The objective of this paper is to identify and analyse factors that affectgeographical distirbution of solar PV system at the local level. Extant literature onrenewable energy pays less attention to the role of local governments, while they cantake on an active leadership in renewable energy expansion. Identifying factorspromoting renewable energy deployment can help design an effective policy. We createdelectricity generation data from new and renewable energy(NRE) sources at the scale ofcity and county, and used multiple regression analysis to test three sets of variables:geographical environment, local policy capacity for NRE and economic factors. Theresult shows that solar PV potential, population density, local contribution to nationalelectricity generation from NRE sources, financial independence are significant factors forboth total solar PV facility and solar PV facility funded by government’s grant program. It was assumed that solar PV facility deployed by grant programs would be morestrongly influenced by local policy capacity and economic factors but only mayors’political appeared to be significant.