With Biden’s IRA Incentives, Companies plan 145 Gigawatts of New Clean Energy in US

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A new report by the American Clean Power Association (ACP) says that in the second quarter the industry rebounded from the slight dip in new green energy in the first quarter, attributed to supply chain problems and tariff difficulties. Impressive strides were made in the most recent quarter, with over 5 gigawatts of utility-scale wind, solar and battery capacity installed, enough to power about a million homes.

The really exciting news, however, is that ACPA says that the government incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Act of the Biden administration are beginning to have an impact on future projects in the pipeline. As a result, there are plans on the books to install a gargantuan 145 gigawatts of clean power. Some 56% of it — 81 gigs — is expected to be solar.

As of January of this year, the US only had 73.5 gigawatts of utility-scale solar operating. So there is more solar power now planned than we have installed in this country to date, basically over the past two decades.

Five gigawatts can power about a million homes, so the planned 81 gigs will power 16 million homes. There are about 130 million households in the US, and between what we already have and everything that is in the pipeline, solar alone could power 30 million households, or nearly a quarter of them.

If you add existing wind power, some 141 gigawatts, and what is in the pipeline, we could soon see enough electricity from clean energy to power over half of American homes.

For reasons I don’t understand, the government statistics only count utility-scale solar — big solar farms — and not rooftop solar, which presently generates about 6 gigawatts and accounts for 4 percent of US households. We can expect this sector to grow enormously, especially in the deep south and the southwest. Nationally, 67% of US households are seriously considering putting up solar panels. Even in Michigan, my solar panels have saved me loads of money over the past decade, more than paying for themselves– especially since we can also fill up our electric car from them in the daytime.

The report underlines that the most impressive growth in projects in the pipeline is in battery storage, which has burgeoned 45%. That development surely reflects Biden’s incentives and subsidies, which has impelled companies to plan several huge battery plants.

Texas, for instance, has over 3 gigawatts of battery storage, which can be filled during the day when solar panels operate. As the sun sets, these kick in, taking up slack until the evening wind starts turning wind turbines. At present batteries are only 1% of Texas’ electricity generation capacity, but that percentage is slated to grow rapidly.

California is up to 5.6 gigawatts of battery storage, which has helped it avoid blackouts. Some 60% of California’s electricity now comes from renewables.

Q2 was a good quarter for clean energy, better than all but one previous quarters (Q2 2021). But if we consider what is in the pipeline, we haven’t seen anything yet.