U.S. Department of Energy: In 2023, 54% of new power generation in the United States will come from photovoltaics

A new report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration predicts that by 2023, 54% of new electricity generation in the United States will come from photovoltaics.

Developers plan to add 54.5 gigawatts of new utility-scale generation capacity to the country's grid this year, according to the EIA's list of plans for generating capacity. Of these, more than half are photovoltaic power generation. Developers and power plant operators report upcoming projects to the EIA, which add up to an estimated 29.1 GW of installed capacity.

Analysts believe that this is mainly due to the impact of the "Inflation Reduction Act" - there are nearly 370 billion US dollars for climate change and clean energy industries, including support for photovoltaic and wind power.

Most of the new solar capacity will be in Texas, with 7.7GW expected to be connected to the grid, by California with 4.2GW, the EIA said. Combined, the two states account for about 41% of new solar capacity planned for this year.

However, "there is some uncertainty about how much of the program will be completed this year," said Morris Greenberg, senior manager of power analysis for North America.

According to the EIA, in the scale of new power generation, electrochemical energy storage is second only to photovoltaics, accounting for 17%.

U.S. utility-scale solar capacity has been growing rapidly since 2010, but 2022 is an exception, according to EIA data. Due to the disruption of the supply chain (what is the specific reason, let’s make up your own mind) and the impact of the new crown, the new addition of solar energy in 2022 will drop by 23% year-on-year.

“We expect partially delayed 2022 PV projects to start operating in 2023, so developers plan to install up to 29.1GW of solar this year,” the EIA said. “If all of this capacity comes online as planned, 2023 will set a record for new U.S. PV installations – the previous record was set in 2021.

Electrochemical energy storage in the United States has grown rapidly over the past few years.

Electrochemical energy storage capacity in the United States could more than double by 2023. The developer stated in the report that it plans to add 9.4GW of battery storage capacity to the existing 8.8GW of battery storage capacity.

Battery storage systems will increasingly be installed in wind and solar projects. Wind and solar power are intermittent sources of electricity generation; they only generate electricity when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining. Batteries store excess power from wind and solar generators for later use. By 2023, EIA expects that same whopping 71% of new battery storage capacity will be in California and Texas, two states with huge installed solar and wind capacity.

Source: Chasing Carbon Technology