Utility-Scale Solar Continues Massive Growth

According to a new report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), utility-scale generation of solar electricity in August 2024 averaged 63.1 gigawatthours between 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. each day in the Lower 48 states, which was 36 percent more than for the same hours in August 2023.

“Additions of solar generating capacity outpaced other resources in the U.S. electric power sector in 2023, and we expect this trend to continue through the end of 2024,” said the EIA.

(In a February 2024, report, the EIA estimated that developers and power plant owners plan to add 62.8 gigawatts (GW) of new utility-scale electric-generating capacity in 2024. This addition would be 55 percent more added capacity than the 40.4 GW added in 2023 [the most since 2003] and pointed to a continued rise in industry activity. At the time, the EIA expected solar to account for the largest share of new capacity in 2024, at 58 percent, followed by battery storage, at 23 percent.

“We expect a record addition of utility-scale solar in 2024 if the scheduled 36.4 GW are added to the grid,” said the EIA in February. “This growth would almost double last year’s 18.4 GW increase, which was itself a record for annual utility-scale solar installation in the United States. As the effects of supply chain challenges and trade restrictions ease, solar continues to outpace capacity additions from other generating resources.”)

Back to the EIA’s most recent report: In August 2024, a total of 107.4 gigawatts (GW) of solar electricity generating capacity was operating in the Lower 48 states, compared with 81.9 GW in August 2023, according to the EIA’s “Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory” report.

Between August and December of this year, the EIA expects that U.S. utility-scale developers will add 24 GW of solar electricity generating capacity. In these same final five months of 2024, it expects that new U.S. solar electricity generating capacity will make up 63 percent, or nearly two-thirds, of all new electricity generating capacity to come online in the United States.

The EIA added that three states accounted for almost one-half of the utility-scale solar fleet in the United States during August 2024:

– California (21.0 GW),

– Texas (18.8 GW), and

– Florida (9.7 GW).

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