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Power dominance is a dopey theme, and it’s no shocker to see President Trump make it sound much more idiotic. Regardless of his bloviating in regards to the greatness of fossil vitality, the numbers present that renewable vitality is one of the simplest ways for the US to say “energy dominance,” no matter that’s. Renewables accounted for greater than 90% of the brand new electrical energy producing capability added within the US final yr, and there’s loads extra the place that comes from.
Renewable Power In The US, By The Numbers
Contemplating the attempted coup now underway (don’t simply take my phrase for it), it’s one thing of a aid to see that the Federal Power Regulatory Fee (FERC) continues to be on the job of issuing its month-to-month vitality stories. Nonetheless, the company is just not precisely trumpeting the good displaying by renewable vitality final yr. To date, FERC has not posted a press launch summarizing the 2024 information on its web site.
However, final week the group SUN DAY Marketing campaign despatched a abstract of the 2024 report back to its mailing checklist, which it discovered at FERC underneath the heading “Energy Infrastructure Update for December 2024,” dated February 6 of this yr.
As summarized by the SUN DAY Marketing campaign, the renewable vitality image within the US is considerably lopsided. Photo voltaic vitality alone accounted for over 81% of the brand new capability added in December 2024, with the whole coming in at 90.5% for the yr.
The low displaying from wind builders is just not a shock, and the image doesn’t look any higher this yr. President Trump single-handedly dealt a deadly blow to the US offshore wind industry — and its 40-state supply chaintoo — when he froze federal offshore leases. Onshore wind exercise, although, nonetheless has some potential to choose up, together with contributions from the wind farm repowering industry.
Renewable Power And The Capability Issue
On the intense aspect, the renewable vitality image is way brighter for the US photo voltaic trade, which doesn’t rely on federal leases. In that regard, the SUN DAY marketing campaign attracts explicit consideration to the all-important capability issue.
On a standalone foundation, nuclear vitality has a better capability issue than every other technique of producing electrical energy, as a result of nuclear energy crops can run near most energy any time of the day or night time. Capability issue is a measurement of how a lot of a plant’s most 24/7 energy is definitely output, explains the US Division of Power.
“A plant with a capacity factor of 100% means it’s producing power all of the time. Nuclear has the highest capacity factor of any other energy source—producing reliable, carbon-free power more than 92% of the time in 2021,” the Power Division provides.
SUN DAY factored in capability issue to check the kilowatts added by photo voltaic, nuclear, and pure gasoline amenities. Even with a decrease capability issue, the cumulative complete of photo voltaic vitality beat nuclear and pure gasoline by vital margins in 2024.
“Adjusting for the differences in capacity factors among solar, nuclear power, and natural gas, the new solar capacity added in 2024 is likely to generate seven times as much electricity as the new nuclear capacity and about five times as much as might be expected from the new natural gas capacity,” SUN DAY explains.
Who’s Afraid Of Renewable Power?
The SUN DAY Marketing campaign primarily based its calculations on FERC information, which present that 105 items of solar energy went into service in December of 2024 alone, for a complete of 4.369 gigawatts. Between wind, photo voltaic, and biomass, renewable vitality accounted for 86.9% of added capability in December, with pure gasoline making up the remainder with a comparatively small contribution of 717 megawatts.
Pulling again to the renewable vitality image for the total yr of 2024, the SUN DAY Marketing campaign famous a complete of 30.816 gigawatts for photo voltaic and three.128 gigawatts for wind.
“Combined with 213-MW of hydropower, 51-MW of biomass, and 29-MW of geothermal steam, renewables were 90.5% of capacity,” the group provides, with the stability coming from the 1.1-gigawatt Vogtle-4 nuclear energy plant in Georgia and a couple of,428 megawatts of pure gasoline.
Coal and oil made a feeble displaying of 13 megawatts and 11 megawatts, respectively.
A Brighter Tomorrow For The Republic …
There may be nonetheless a protracted strategy to go on the US electrical energy decarbonization pathway. Nonetheless, the journey is just not so long as the FERC information recommend. SUN DAY notes that FERC solely collects data on about 70% of photo voltaic capability within the US. The opposite 30% consists of rooftop photo voltaic and different small scale installations, which aren’t included in month-to-month stories.
Excluding small-scale photo voltaic, FERC arrived at 31% for the share of renewable vitality in total US electrical energy producing capability as of 2024. With small-scale photo voltaic included, SUN DAY calculates a small however significant bump as much as about 33% for renewables, together with wind, hydropower, biomass, and geothermal.
As well as, SUN DAY attracts consideration to FERC’s quick time period outlook for renewable vitality additions.
“Solar’s share of U.S. generating capacity is now 10x greater than a decade ago while wind’s is more than double,” SUN DAY emphasizes, noting that FERC expresses a “high probability” that new additions of photo voltaic capability will complete greater than 9.1 gigawatts between now and December 2027, with wind coming in second with greater than 2.3 gigawatts.
“On the other hand, there is no new nuclear capacity in FERC’s three-year forecast while coal, oil, and natural gas are projected to contract by 23,925-MW, 2,293-MW, and 833-MW respectively,” SUN DAY notes.
… If You Can Hold It
Don’t simply take their phrase for it. The US Power Info Company, an impartial department of the Power Division, summarized its quick time period vitality outlook on January 24 of this yr, leading off with the remark that “we expect that U.S. renewable capacity additions—especially solar—will continue to drive the growth of U.S. power generation over the next two years.”
EIA anticipates one other 26 gigawatts of utility-scale photo voltaic this yr and 22 extra in 2026. “We forecast wind capacity additions will increase by around 8 GW in 2025 and 9 GW in 2026, slight increases from the 7 GW added in 2024,” they added.
In a standard world, if the consultants count on that renewable vitality on the whole, and photo voltaic vitality particularly, will “drive the growth” of energy era within the US, then one would count on that to be mirrored in federal vitality coverage. Besides, not. Nothing in regards to the Trump administration displays the conventional conduct of US authorities enterprise, not the energy policy nor anything else.
It doesn’t need to be that means. In case you are involved {that a} coup try is properly underway, “attempt” is the operative phrase. Public opinion nonetheless issues. Let your representatives in Congress know what you assume.
Comply with me by way of LinkTreeor @tinamcasey on LinkedIn and Bluesky.
Picture (cropped): A lot successful! Renewable vitality on the whole, and solar energy in particularwill overrun the dopey “energy dominance” coverage expressed by President Trump (courtesy of US DOE).
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