Graph of the Week: Solar and Battery Deployment in US
April 1, 2022
Legacy energy and utility interests might not want you to know this, but the energy transition is now in full effect in the United States. We’re well beyond the “what if” stage, when we wondered how the grid would adjust to renewable energy, and are now decisively in the era of solar and storage.
Power plant developers and operators plan to add 85 gigawatts of new capacity to the U.S. power grid in 2022 and 2023, and 60 percent (51 gigawatts) of this total will be made up of solar power and battery storage projects (often paired together), according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Texas, California and New York are leading this revolution in clean energy capacity additions in the U.S.
The remaining 34 gigawatts of planned capacity additions over the next two years will consist mostly of fossil gas (16 gigawatts) and wind (15 gigawatts). However, both of these sources will be handily eclipsed by new solar and battery storage deployments.
Climate Denial Crock of the Week 
April 1, 2022 at 4:32 pm
Independent of solar or wind, grid batteries would have their own profitable advantages from the arbitrage of energy between peak demand and low-cost generation. Throw in weather-erratic generation like PV and wind and the load-shifting functions of batteries are even more important.