Solar Moving Up Fast

Solar power will account for nearly half of new U.S. electric generating capacity in 2022 Elesia Fasching and Suparna Ray, January 10, 2022 (U.S. Energy Information Administration)

“…In 2002, The U.S. Department of Energy expects 46.1 gigawatts (GW) of new utility-scale electric generating capacity to be added to the U.S. power grid…Almost half of the planned 2022 capacity additions are solar, followed by natural gas at 21% and wind at 17%...[It expects] U.S. utility-scale solar generating capacity to grow by 21.5 GW in 2022. This planned new capacity would surpass last year’s [estimated] 15.5 GW of solar capacity additions…Most planned solar additions in 2022 will be in Texas (6.1 GW, or 28% of the national total), followed by California (4.0 GW)…[It expects] 9.6 GW of new natural gas-fired capacity to come online…Combined-cycle plants account for [over 84%] of the planned capacity additions…[and 88%] is located in Ohio, Florida, Michigan, and Illinois…

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…[In 2021, wind brought a record-high 17.1 GW of wind capacity online and another] 7.6 GW of wind capacity is scheduled to come online in 2022…[with 51% of 2022 additions] in Texas…[Utility-scale battery storage capacity is expected] to grow by 5.1 GW, or 84%, in 2022…[Drivers include] declining costs of battery storage, deploying battery storage with renewable generation, and adding value through regional transmission organization (RTO) markets…[Two new reactors at the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia could provide] 5% of the country’s planned electric capacity additions in 2022…” click here for more

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