Photo voltaic technology for the primary 11 months of 2024 elevated by over 26%, whereas new photo voltaic producing capability added in November was the second-highest month-to-month whole ever reported, in accordance with new knowledge launched by the Federal Power Regulatory Fee (FERC) and the US Power Data Administration (EIA).
New photo voltaic capability simply surpassed all different vitality sources throughout the first 11 months of 2024, adopted by wind, in accordance with the SUN DAY Marketing campaign, which reviewed the information.
Photo voltaic was 81.4% of recent capability throughout the first 11 months of 2024 and 98.6% in November alone. In keeping with FERC’s newest “Power Infrastructure Replace” report (with knowledge by November 30, 2024), 25,817 megawatts (MW) of recent utility-scale photo voltaic technology was positioned into service within the first 11 months of 2024 – 81.4% of the whole.
In November alone, photo voltaic added 4,132 MW representing 98.6% of all new capability added, making it the second-largest month-to-month enlargement, behind solely December 2023 when 4,979 MW have been added. Furthermore, November was the fifteenth month in a row that photo voltaic was the biggest supply of recent utility-scale producing capability.
Utility-scale photo voltaic producing capability has now reached 125.53 gigawatts (GW) or 9.61% of the whole put in capability by all vitality sources. (FERC’s knowledge don’t embody the capability of small-scale photo voltaic programs that account for roughly 30% of all US photo voltaic capability.)
New wind capability year-to-date (YTD) accounted for a lot of the steadiness by November – 2,804 MW (8.8%). One other 248 MW have been offered by hydropower, geothermal, and biomass. Thus, the combo of all renewables accounted for 91.0% of all new capability additions.
New photo voltaic capability ought to present considerably extra electrical energy than the pure fuel or nuclear energy vegetation that got here on-line in 2024. In November alone, 72 new “items” of utility-scale (ie, >1 MW) photo voltaic have been positioned into service whereas 613 items got here on-line YTD. Their mixed capability was virtually double that reported for a similar interval in 2023 (13,829 MW).
Furthermore, producing capability of the brand new photo voltaic services was 15 occasions higher than the capability additions of pure fuel (1,711 MW) and practically 24 occasions greater than these of nuclear energy (1,100 MW).
The brand new photo voltaic capability ought to produce extra electrical energy than the nuclear and gas-fired energy vegetation that got here on-line in 2024, however that the latter two have considerably increased capability components than both photo voltaic or wind: nuclear – 93.0%, pure fuel – 59.7%, wind – 33.2%, photo voltaic – 23.2%.
Adjusting for the variations in capability components, the photo voltaic added in 2024 YTD ought to generate virtually six occasions extra electrical energy than the brand new capability additions of both nuclear energy or pure fuel. Electrical energy to be produced by newly added wind ought to practically match that of both new nuclear or fuel capability.
Photo voltaic stays the fastest-growing supply of US electrical technology. In keeping with EIA’s newest month-to-month “Electrical Energy Month-to-month” report (with knowledge by November 30, 2024), the mix of utility-scale and “estimated” small-scale (e.g., rooftop) photo voltaic elevated by 26.2% within the first 11 months of 2024 in comparison with the identical interval in 2023. This displays a mixture of 31.0% progress by utility-scale photo voltaic thermal and PV plus 15.4% progress by small-scale services (ie, <1 MW).
No different vitality supply got here near matching that charge of progress. The second-fastest rising supply {of electrical} technology was wind energy, which grew by 7.6%.
By comparability, pure fuel and nuclear energy expanded by simply 3.8% and 0.6%, respectively, whereas coal-generated electrical energy shrunk by 4.7%.
Utility-scale photo voltaic offered 5.1% of US electrical technology by the tip of November, whereas small-scale photo voltaic offered one other 2.0%. Mixed, that positioned photo voltaic technology second to that of wind (10.3%) and forward of hydropower (5.5%), biomass (1.1%), and geothermal (0.3%).
Via the primary 11 months of 2024, the combo of all renewables accounted for twenty-four.3% of whole US electrical technology – up from 22.9% a 12 months earlier. Furthermore, the mix of simply photo voltaic and wind outproduced coal by 18% and got here near the output of the US’s nuclear energy vegetation.
“Photo voltaic and different renewables are going through an unsure future underneath a seemingly hostile Trump administration,” famous the SUN DAY Marketing campaign’s government director Ken Bossong. “However the robust and unceasing progress by photo voltaic and wind gives the very best argument for his or her continued assist.”
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