RE+ Tech Supp to POWER September 2023 - 6

EMPOWERING CLEAN ENERGY
SOLAR & OTHER RENEWABLES
Growth Slows, but U.S. Renewable Energy
Installs at Third-Highest Level in 2023
T
he American Clean Power Association
(ACP) in a new report said
installations of energy storage,
along with wind and solar power capacity,
were at the third-highest level on record
in 2023, with more than 25 GW of
new clean power installed cross the U.S.
But challenges to clean energy deployment
remain. The group's " Clean Power
Annual Market Report for 2023, " released
earlier this year along with ACP's " Clean
Power Quarterly Market Report for Q1
2023, " said employment issues during
the past two years, and a " historically low
Q1 2023, " highlight " the continued headwinds
facing the industry. "
" The clean energy revolution is underway, "
said ACP CEO Jason Grumet.
" We have the technology, financial capital
and workforce to power our economy
with clean, affordable and secure energy.
There is broad bipartisan support
for American energy innovation. But the
clean energy transition will not succeed
unless Congress and governors enable
the siting and construction of new energy
facilities and support the build out
of transmission that is required to bring
clean power to the people. "
ACP published the report in conjunction
with the group's CLEANPOWER
2023 conference and exhibition in New
Orleans, Louisiana, in May of this year.
The ACP-sponsored
event
brought
together several technology groups
across renewable energy, including onshore
and offshore wind, solar, energy
storage, and transmission.
The group in its report noted that after
the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) became
law in August 2023, renewable energy
saw what ACP deemed " record levels of
announced activity, " with the development
pipeline increasing to almost 140
GW by the end of March 2023. That represents
an 11% year-over-year increase.
The group, though, said it remains to be
seen how much of that pipeline actually
enters operation, as installations last
year slowed for the first time since 2017.
ACP said various issues are delaying
deployment of more than 60 GW of renewable
energy projects through the
first quarter of this year.
Solid Growth in Energy
Storage
Energy storage was a bright spot in
2023, with 4 GW of capacity and 12 GWh
of storage commissioned, an 80% jump
in capacity compared to the prior year.
Texas led the nation with more than
9 GW of renewable energy installed in
2023, more than twice the amount of any
other state. Also of note, South Dakota
and Iowa each generated more than 50%
of their total electricity from clean power.
Texas continues to lead the U.S. in
terms of operating clean power capacity,
with 55 GW installed.
The group said hybrid project installations-those
using two or more technologies-were
60% higher last year than in
2021, reaching a new high with about 6
GW of new projects coming online.
The 140-GW development pipeline
is led by solar power (59%), followed
by onshore wind (15%), battery energy
storage (14%), and then offshore wind.
The group said that at year-end
2023, about 228 GW of clean energy
was online across the U.S., with 4 GW
added in the first three months of this
year. ACP said that despite an overall
slowdown last year, renewable energy
still accounted for almost 80% of all
new generation added to the U.S. grid.
ACP said delays in 2023 impacted more
than 50 GW of projects in late-stage development.
That figure rose to 63.3 GW by
the end of March this year. The group said
that those projects on average face delays
of six months or more, primarily due
to several factors, including:
* Unclear permitting timelines.
* Trade policy uncertainty.
* Transmission shortages.
* Difficulties sourcing solar panels.
* Unresolved IRA implementation.
* Interconnection queue challenges.
6 Supplement to POWER & RE+ 2023
Source: U.S. Annual and Cumulative Utility-Scale
Clean Power Capacity Growth - Clean Power Annual
Market Report | 2023
Jesse Grossman, chairman and CEO
of Soltage, a New Jersey-based renewable
energy provider, earlier this year told
POWER, " Despite the significant boost to
renewables from the Inflation Reduction
Act, bottlenecks for renewable energy
adoption, including the inability of the
current distribution and transmission infrastructure
to connect renewable energy
projects across the U.S. at speed, will
remain in 2023. A two-year solar project
development lifecycle in 2005 would take
4+ years to complete today, partially due
to increased interconnection queues.
Moving forward, we hope to see federal
level enforcement over utility infrastructure
spending and transmission buildout
as well as increased storage development
to reduce pressures caused by the
rapid electrification of the U.S. grid. "
ACP group said about 1,741 GW of
generation capacity was waiting in interconnection
queues at the end of last
year. It also warned that slower growth
in renewable energy threatens the
Biden administration's net-zero carbon
goals, saying, " Maintaining last year's
project installation volume would provide
only 30% of what is needed to
reach a net-zero grid by 2035. "
ACP said there are now 550 U.S. manufacturing
facilities dedicated to producing
components for energy projects.
-Darrell Proctor is a senior associate
editor for POWER (@POWERmagazine).
https://twitter.com/powermagazine
RE+ Tech Supp to POWER September 2023

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