As solar and wind soar internationally, the Trump gang makes total war on renewables
With all the bad news about the climate crisis, a July report from the International Renewable Energy Agency focuses on a giant bright spot, the fantastic global growth of renewable energy. (You can read the executive summary here.)
In short, the report says, the total installed costs for renewable power fell by more than 10% in all technologies between 2023 and 2024, excepting offshore wind and bioenergy. While various factors led to small increases in the levelized cost of electricity for photovoltaic solar and onshore wind, concentrated solar power fell by 46%, geothermal by 16%, and hydropower by 2%. Solar power, according to the report, is now around 40% cheaper than the next cheapest fossil fuel, while offshore wind is more than 50% cheaper.
Additionally, according to a July report from the International Energy Agency (executive summary here), renewable energy from all sources will surpass coal to become the world’s single largest source of electricity “by 2026 at the latest.” I am not typically a user of exclamation points, but in case all the crap flowing out of the Trump administration has boggled your time sense, that’s next year!
Worldwide, all sources of electricity generated 30,850 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2024. Of that, wind and solar generated 4,000 TWh globally (15% of the global total), and the IEA says this will exceed 6,000 TWh in 2026. Together, the two sources will provide “more than 90% of the increase in global electricity demand out to 2026.”
For those of us who’ve been on the energy beat for decades listening to the naysayers ridicule renewables as never being able to cover more than a dribble of our energy needs, it’s exciting times. Unfortunately, in the United States, we’re stuck for now under the rule of fossil fuel lickspittles who are hellbent on blocking additions of cheap and clean wind and solar installations.
In the United States, however, we’ve got the Five Horsemen of the Renewables Apocalypse — Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Office of Personnel Management chief Russ Vought, and, of course, Donald Trump — riding roughshod over any policies that address climate.
Cross-posted and updated from The Journal of Uncharted Blue Places
You can also find me @meteorblades.bsky.social
As Jonathan P. Thompson at The Land Desk notes, Trump repeatedly accused President Obama and President Biden of making war on fossil fuels. A rather disputed accusation given that oil and gas production soared to its highest levels ever under both of them despite their blocking of drilling in a few select places. But there’s no question the Trump administration is making war on energy, under the banners of “energy dominance” and “energy emergency.”
Who loses? By killing tax credits, the war on renewables could wipes out at least 17,000 jobs in the U.S. wind industry, and risk many thousands more. The Solar Energy Industry Association asserts that 250,000 solar jobs could be at risk. According to energy consultant Wood Mackenzie, the Republican megabill could cut residential solar in half through 2030. And while Trump occasionally still hauls out an incoherent line or two about helping American workers, his EPA plans to claw back $7 billion in rooftop solar grants of the Solar for All program. To be clear, that means rescinding grants already provided to non-profits, tribes, state, and local governments for their programs to get solar panels onto the homes of lower-income Americans
Add to this the blocking of all new offshore wind installations, heightened reviews of solar and wind projects on federal land, and requiring the personal sign-off for any such project by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, a patsy and shill for the fossil fuel industry during his two terms as North Dakota governor. All part of an effort to end alleged preferential treatment for approving solar and wind and clearing the path for still more fossil fuel development.
For the record, a report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory found that after taking into consideration social, environmental, and technical concerns, there’s solid potential on federal land for installing 1,750 gigawatts of solar and 70 gigawatts for wind. Currently, total U.S. capacity from all energy sources is around 1,400 gigawatts. (It’s important to note that because of intermittency, solar and wind capacity isn’t a perfect match for the capacity of other sources.)
Burgum halted offshore wind leasing in a July 29 “secretarial order,” asserting that the Biden administration had engaged in “destructive and ideological policies” in approving energy projects on federal land and waters. He said the Interior Department would “identify the existence of any preferential treatment toward wind and solar facilities” in comparison with dispatchable generation, and eliminate any such preferences from “regulations, guidance, policies, or practices.”
In a follow-up press release, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced it “is ending the federal practice of designating large areas of the [outer continental shelf] for speculative wind development, and is de-designating over 3.5 million acres of unleased federal waters previously targeted for offshore wind development.”
Burgum two days later again escalated the war on renewables with another secretarial order under which Interior will issue energy project permits based on “capacity density.” That’s defined as the amount of energy a project can generate per acre. There are huge differences between the per acre capacity density of a solar array and an advanced nuclear reactor.
However, Thompson points out, some of Interior’s calculations seem “fishy,” especially since they are based on a report that is not about capacity density:
The supercritical coal plant referenced in the report, for example, would require a mere 600 acres. Yet, the Four Corners coal plant in northwestern New Mexico — along with its associated Navajo Mine (current mining areas as well as reclaimed areas), Morgan Lake, and coal combustion waste disposal facilities — covers (and wrecks) some 15,000 acres. That acreage will continue to grow for as long as the plant operates, since the mine and waste dumps will continue to expand. Compare that to the 2,400 acres covered by the nearby San Juan solar plant.
I’d also argue that if the goal is to get the most energy out of every acre of public land (which is a silly goal, but whatever), then they should figure in the amount of energy the proposed project consumes. Coal mining and oil and gas drilling require large amounts of electricity and petroleum (along with human labor, which is also a form of energy), as does transporting coal and gas by train and pipeline. Uranium enrichment, which is necessary to produce reactor fuel, is extremely power-intensive.
Like a big percentage of what Trump’s Toadies are doing, this one by Burgum is being litigated. In a press release accompanying his executive order, he stated:
“Gargantuan, unreliable, intermittent energy projects hold America back from achieving U.S. Energy Dominance while weighing heavily on the American taxpayer and environment. By considering energy generation optimization, the Department will be able to better manage our federal lands, minimize environmental impact, and maximize energy development to further President Donald Trump’s energy goals.”
A guy who thinks coal mines, uranium mines, and oil and gas wells weigh on the environment less than solar and wind installations has no business running the Interior Department, but we knew that before he was confirmed. The numbskullery here, combined with Trump’s jackassery, is phenomenal.
As the world moves inexorably, if still too slowly, toward clean and green, operating on the idea that the United States will be energy dominant by focusing on developing more of yesterday’s polluting, climate-busting energy sources is financially and geopolitically as stupid as putting arsonists on the fire brigade. But then arsonists are exactly who we’ve got running the Interior and Energy departments, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the White House. And that is our real energy emergency.