Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

CleanTechnica

Clean Power

Solar & Wind = 99.9% of New US Power Capacity in April, 93.9% In May

Solar power and wind power continue to dominate new power capacity additions in the United States. Following the trend of recent months — or years, to some extent — almost 100% of new power capacity additions in April came from solar and wind, and 94% of new power capacity additions in May came from solar and wind. (Note that these figures exclude rooftop solar power, so the numbers would be even higher if that was added in.) Here are the charts:

(Yes, 1 measly megawatt of extra oil power production capacity blocked a 100% figure in April.)

If you look at the first 4 or 5 months of the year, the story is similar. There’s a bit of new natural gas power capacity, but solar and wind power dominate. Renewables accounted for 94.4% of all new US power capacity in January–May 2021. That is up considerably from the 51.1% of the same period in 2020 and the 41.7% of the same period in 2019.

With all of that great news regarding new power capacity additions, it’s easy to get a little excited. Unfortunately, the problem is that it takes a long time to update and transition the power grid. At the end of May, this is how the total installed base of large power plants in the US broke out:

Wind and solar combined still haven’t caught up to coal. Even wind and hydropower combined haven’t. And natural gas is in a league of its own and won’t be caught for many years.

The next two charts cover trends in total power capacity over the past 3 years. Renewables as a whole, led by solar and wind, are rising strongly while coal has been dropping a step or two each year. Still, though, look at how much further natural gas, coal, and oil need to drop.

While solar power continues to grow fast in the United States, the expanding market and constantly evolving technologies raise questions about where, when, and how it’s most effective to invest in further solar power growth. Where do you get the most bang for your buck? What technology combos are the best these days in different regions? And how do you maximize the output of a project after it’s already been installed?

For anyone looking to maximize output from a solar power project already in the ground, looking to manage a fast-growing portfolio of solar projects, or simply trying to figure out how best to attract customers in a hyper-competitive world, I think you could find out coming webinar on these topics and more to be truly helpful. You can register for the webinar here if this sounds up your alley (it’s free).

 
I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So ...
If you like what we do and want to support us, please chip in a bit monthly via PayPal or Patreon to help our team do what we do! Thank you!
Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!
 

Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
 

Written By

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA], NIO [NIO], Xpeng [XPEV], Ford [F], ChargePoint [CHPT], Amazon [AMZN], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Lithium Americas [LAC], Albemarle Corporation [ALB], Nouveau Monde Graphite [NMGRF], Talon Metals [TLOFF], Arclight Clean Transition Corp [ACTC], and Starbucks [SBUX]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.

Comments

You May Also Like

Batteries

Manufacturing whitepaper and interactive map spell out opportunity to reshore the solar supply chain

Batteries

Wind, solar, and battery storage are growing as a share of new electric-generating capacity each year. In 2023, these three technologies account for 82%...

Clean Power

According to the latest Rethink Energy report, “global solar installations are on track for 222 GW of installations during 2022, and manufacturing output shows...

Batteries

Developers and power plant owners plan to significantly increase utility-scale battery storage capacity in the United States over the next three years, reaching 30.0...

Copyright © 2023 CleanTechnica. The content produced by this site is for entertainment purposes only. Opinions and comments published on this site may not be sanctioned by and do not necessarily represent the views of CleanTechnica, its owners, sponsors, affiliates, or subsidiaries.

Advertisement