| Work Detail |
Data from the US FERC project shows that solar energy could displace natural gas as the main source of electricity by 2030.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) released its Energy Infrastructure Update report, noting that solar energy accounts for the majority of capacity additions in the US energy mix.
From 2023 to August 31, just under 9 GW of solar capacity was added, representing 40.5% of all capacity additions. This represents 36% year-over-year growth.
Wind power provided an additional 2.7 GW, around 12.5% ??of new capacity additions. Including solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal and biomass, renewable energy sources contributed 54.3% of capacity additions.
There is still a lot of growth ahead for decarbonized energy to displace fossil fuel sources. In terms of total available installed generation capacity, natural gas remains the leader. More than 44% of available electricity generation capacity comes from natural gas, followed by coal (16.4%), wind power (11.6%), hydroelectric power (8%) and solar power (7.2%). %).
FERC predicts strong growth in solar energy in the coming years. It expects more than 83 GW of “high probability” solar capacity additions through August 2026. This dwarfs the 4 GW of natural gas additions expected through that date.
FERC said the 83 GW of “high probability” solar additions may be quite conservative. There are more than 214 GW of solar additions in the three-year pipeline.
Natural gas currently has 564 GW of available installed capacity, while solar has 92 GW. Looking ahead three years, if solar energy added all the projects in the portfolio to the network, it would reach 306 GW. Data suggests that, with a healthy increase in projects, solar energy could displace natural gas as the leading electricity supplier by 2030.
Investment
Achieving the status of number one electricity supplier will require significant financing. A report from the Rhodium Group and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) showed that total US investment in clean energy, clean transportation, building electrification and carbon management reached $213 billion over the past year (from July 1, 2022 to June 30). , 2023).
The $213 billion invested represents a 37% jump from the $155 billion investments in 2021/2022. Clean investment continues to increase strongly every year. In 2018/2019, total investments reached $81 billion and have increased every year since.
Domestic manufacturing of clean energy technologies has become an increasing focus in recent years, and rich tax credits and incentives have served as a pulling force. Manufacturing investments totaled $39 billion in 2022/2023, more than double the $17 billion invested in the previous reporting period.
Solar energy represented the largest category of energy and industrial investment in the second quarter of 2023, attracting $8.62 billion. This was followed by storage at $4.08 billion and wind energy at $2.03 billion. |
