I wrote about the newest US Solar Market Insight Report this morning to provide an update on US solar power capacity added in the first half of 2020, including in relation to other energy sources. However, there’s much more to cover in the report, so let’s go through some of those charts again as well as other ones.
At the end of last week, I reported on new power capacity installed across the United States in the first half of 2020. The data for that report came from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). However, FERC’s dataset is incomplete. It does not include rooftop solar power and some other small and medium sized solar power installations.
The biggest, hottest, most enticing CleanTechnica stories last week were led by Sony unveiling an electric car, the impossible-to-comprehend scale of this month’s Australian wildfires, and a solar energy storage device from the 1980s that has come back to life. You may have noticed something unusual by now — there wasn’t a single Tesla story in the top 3! That’s the first time in a long time, and ironic considering that Tesla stock [TSLA] went bonkers last week (and is still going bonkers).
A new analysis of recently released data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) by the SUN DAY Campaign has highlighted the fact that renewable energy sources accounted for 18.49% of US electrical generation during the first eight months of 2019 — up from 17.95% a year earlier.
The United States solar industry now boasts the largest pipeline of utility-scale solar projects in history with a record 37.9 gigawatts (GW) of contracted solar, according to the latest figures from Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables and the Solar Energy Industries Association.
The world’s largest corporations signed contracts for more than 6 gigawatts of wind and solar capacity in the United States last year, the beginning of what Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables is calling a “corporate renewables procurement boom” which is spurring renewable energy development across the country.
The United States’ Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has apparently “dramatically revised” its three-year forecast for changes in the country’s electrical generating capacity mix, according to the SUN DAY Campaign, with sharp declines expected for fossil fuel and nuclear generation offset by even stronger growth in renewable energy.
The United States solar industry experienced its biggest first quarter ever, installing 2.7 gigawatts (GW) of new solar capacity over the first three months of the year, a 10% year-over-year increase and paving the way for what experts believe will be a year with growth of 25%.
America has officially entered the “coal cost crossover,” according to a new report by environmental firm Energy Innovation, which finds that local wind and solar could replace approximately 74% of the United States’ current fleet of coal-fired power plants at an immediate cost savings to consumers — a figure which is expected to grow to 86% by 2025.
Grassroots environmental organization Sierra Club has partnered with one of America’s leading solar manufacturers SunPower on a new incentive and rebate program open to the organisation’s more than 3.5 million members and supporters.
