Utility-scale solar had a record year in 2023. It's set to double in 2024 - pv magazine USA
Utility-scale solar had a record year in 2023. It’s set to double in 2024 - pv magazine USA
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory, releasing projections for high-probability electric generation capacity additions for 2024.
EIA expects nearly 63 GW of new capacity this year, adding significantly more than the 40 GW added in 2023. Last year was the largest boom in grid capacity additions since 2023, and 2024 is set to blow that out of the water.
What’s more, solar and batteries are dominating the project queues. Solar represents 58% of expected capacity additions in 2024, and batteries take second place with 23% of the mix. This represents a record 36.4 GW of solar and 14.3 GW of battery energy storage. These figures only include utility-scale projects, meaning solar has an even larger piece of the pie when including distributed solar like rooftop residential and commercial behind-the-meter projects.
EIA’s 36.4 GW projection of utility-scale solar nearly doubles last year’s 18.4 GW increase, which was already a new deployment record.
Texas is expected to be the head-and-shoulders frontrunner, adding 35% of the nation’s utility-scale solar in 2024. This is followed by California (10%), and Florida (6%).
Meanwhile, total cumulative battery energy storage is expected to nearly double this year. In its entire history, the U.S. has installed about 15.5 GW of grid-scale batteries. EIA expects 14.3 GW more storage to be installed and operational in 2024.
The two leading technologies are followed by wind (13%), natural gas (4%), and nuclear (2%). There zero coal-fired plants planned in 2024, and more decommissioning projects are on the way.
To easily track up-to-date utility-scale capacity addition data, state-by-state, check out the pv magazine USA 50 states of solar data browser, powered by PV Intel.
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Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: renewables
Renewable energy sources — once the fuel of the future, then practical in specific, narrow applications — are increasingly economic mainstream sources of power generation. Hydropower was long the mainstay of U.S. renewable electricity generation, although wind power surpassed hydro for the first time in 2019, and solar continues its rapid growth. The continued growth of wind and solar, with their fluctuations, is tied in part to improvements in storage technology: batteries.