The US Power Grid added more capacity of solar energy in 2024 than from any other source in a single year in more than two decades, according to a new industrial report released on Tuesday.
The data was released a day after the new American energy secretary, Chris Wright, on two fronts, highly criticized Solar and Wind Energy. He said on Monday at the start of Ceraweek by S&P Global, an annual energy conference in Houston, that they could not meet the growing electricity needs of the world and that their use increased energy costs.
The report, produced by the Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie, a research agency, said that about 50 gigawatts of new capacity for solar generation were added last year, much more than any other source of electricity.
Mr. Wright and President Trump have been strongly critical of renewable energy, which former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. defended as a way to tackle climate change. The energy secretary, Mr. Trump and Republicans in the congress have promised to reverse much of Mr Biden's climate and energy policy.
“In addition to the obvious scale and cost problems, there is simply no physical way in which wind, solar energy and batteries can replace the countless use of natural gas,” said Mr. Wright, who was previously Chief Executive of an oil and gas production company.
Nevertheless, solar energy and battery storage systems seem to have a considerable momentum and may not be easily thwarted. The US Energy Information Administration, which is part of Mr. Wright's department, said last month that it expected that solar and batteries would continue to lead new capacity installations this year on American electric gratings.
Proponents of clean energy celebrated the milestone for solar energy as the world increases to increase electricity production to meet the needs of energy-hungry data centers to support the growth of artificial intelligence.
“There is a wild agreement that, in order to do that, we must have sufficient electricity, and there are facts that show that the fastest way to do that and the cheapest way to do that is through the use of solar energy and storage,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, president and chief executive of the Solar Association, said in an interview at CeraWeek.
In a panel discussion, the leader of one of the largest utilities of the Nation Solar's ability to deliver new electricity generation quickly and cheaply.
“Renewable energy sources are now ready to go because they have been active,” says John Ketchum, President and Chief Executive of Nextera Energy, the largest American producer of renewable energy and the parent company of Florida Power & Light, a utility plants that burn nature gas.
But Mr. Wright said that the growing use of solar and wind energy increased the costs of electricity, which has steadily risen in recent years. Part of that increase is due to the sharp jump in the costs of oil and natural gas after the 2022 infringement of Russia in Ukraine and to upgrades to schedules that experts say that utilities have postponed for many years.
“Wind and solar, the treasures of the last administration and so much of today's world, deliver about 3 percent of global primary energy,” said Mr. Wright. “Wherever wind and solar penetration has increased considerably, prices on the grid went up and the stability of the grid fell.”
The electricity rates throughout the country reached their highest level in 2024, with an average of 4 percent nationally to $ 162.60 per month for the typical use of 1,000 kilowatt hours, an increase of $ 156.90 a year earlier, according to the latest federal data.
Even if prices rise, the electricity demand is expected to rise drastically. Mr Ketchum projected an increase of 55 percent in the demand for electricity in the next 20 years, almost one fifth of that related to the growth of data centers, with production and industrial growth for a lot of rest.
Given the projections for the increased demand for electricity, Energie experts said that governments should concentrate on affordability, reliability and safety of domestic and global energy, without losing sight of the worries about climate change.
“There will be bumps in the way,” said Ernest Moniz, who was an energy secretary in the Obama government, during a panel discussion in Ceraweek. “We are going to this low -carbon future.”
