December 31, 2023
By  Juan Cole

33 new Gigs of Solar: Top 7 Renewables Good News Stories in the US for 2023

CLIMATE CRISIS

Photo by Zbynek Burival on Unsplash

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The United States has long been characterized by its “can-do” spirit. With all the alarming news about climate change, it is easy for us to lose sight of the progress we are making. Here are IC’s top 7 renewables good news stories of 2023.

1. The solar industry in the US increased new installations by 55% over the previous year, installing 33 gigawatts of new solar capacity, according to Wood McKenzie. Solar accounted for about half of new electricity generating capacity put in this year. According to Maria Virginia Olano at Canary Media, in 2022 only 21 gigawatts of new solar had been installed. In total, the US has 161 gigawatts of solar now, which generates 5% of the country’s electricity. She points out that half the total US solar capacity has been put in since the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020. This is an industry newly on a roll. In 25 years the bulk of US electricity is likely to come from this source.

2. Solar panel prices in the US fell 15% in 2023. The price of solar panels in China, however, fell 40%. The good news is that solar panel prices continue to fall, and there is room for substantial increases in efficiency. Translation: Solar will get cheaper and will generate even more power. The Energy Information Administration predicts that solar in the US will be up another 39% next year.

3. Pattern Energy raised $11 billion in funding for its massive wind farm in New Mexico, the largest such project in the northern hemisphere. The financing will allow the completion of the 3-gigawatt SunZia wind facility, as well as of a high density transmission wire that will bring the electricity to Phoenix and Tucson. The clean electricity thus generated will power 2.6 million households. New Mexico has nearly a million households and Arizona has about 7 million. In one of my most viral postings, I pointed out that New Mexico is poised to become the Saudi Arabia of wind. Overall, the US added 8 to 9 gigawatts of new wind capacity in 2023, considered a slowing of installations. But because of the Inflation Reduction Act, a lot of new projects were begun this year that will come to fruition in 18 months or so.

4. At COP28 the US pledged to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 and to double energy efficiency. Since the US more than tripled its renewables in the past decade, this seems a plausible goal, especially since the cost of solar panels continues to plummet.

5. Wind and solar are expected to account for 16 percent of US electricity generation in 2023, up from 14 percent the previous year.

6. The EIA projects that wind and solar combined will generate more electricity than coal in 2024 in the US for the first time in history. Coal is the dirtiest and most dangerous fossil fuel, emitting twice the carbon when burned of fossil gas, and polishing it off is essential to saving the planet.

7. Americans bought a million electric vehicles in 2023 according to AP, an unimaginable number only a couple of years ago. The way is not smooth, in part because of the protectionist quirks Biden built into the IRA’s tax rebates for electric vehicles, and sales started flagging later in the year. Many Americans are pairing their EVs with rooftop solar installations. If you have such a set-up and charge the car during the day, you are driving on free sunshine. Of 131 million households in the US, 4.5 million have rooftop solar. The combination is unbeatable, and will certainly burgeon.

There is no room for complacency. The US is on track only to achieve between 66% and 75% of its 2030 emissions reduction goals, even with the IRA. Unless it does a 100% we are in danger of tipping the world over into climate chaos. But the picture is much brighter now than it was in 2015, or in the era of the odious Trump. We need to elect Democrats across the board if we’re going to make it. The task is too big for any institution but government, and the Republican Party’s platform is to fart out enough carbon to doom the planet.

Still, the incredible advances of solar power in the US this year, and the projections for next, are a source of optimism.