Blistering Pace of US Renewables

Canary Media: Chart: Almost all new US power plants are carbon-free.” Three comments on this 2024 chart. First, obviously we have hard data for the first 6 months, but the last 6 months are EIA projections. Second, I would have placed the 2 smallest contributors on the bottom, not the top of this bar chart. Third, the nuclear addition represents a single nuclear plant that went into service in April, the second one of the pair added at the Vogtle site in Arizona. [Remember, they were 7 yrs behind schedule + construction costs ballooned from $14 B to $35 B]. The overwhelming majority of new capacity—97%—came from low-carbon solar, battery, wind, fossil gas + nuclear, in that order, with solar constituting 59% of installations through the end of June. Texas + Florida took the lead in the 12 gigawatts worth of solar in the first half. But Nevada deserves an honorable mention for the enormous Gemini solar-and-storage facility. Most of the battery storage popped up in California and Texas. A report earlier this year tried to quantify just how much new clean energy the U.S. had to build this year to get power sector emissions on track, which calculated to 60 GW. Right now, per EIA data, the country is on track to build exactly that much carbon-free power this year — 60 GW.” Encouraging, to say the least.