30 votes

Solar comprises over half of new energy production, reaching a renewable energy milestone not seen since WWII

Posted by drannex
Tags: energy.renewable, usa, solar power, author.tik root, source.grist
https://grist.org/energy/solar-hits-a-renewable-energy-milestone-not-seen-since-wwii/

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Authors
Tik Root
Published
Mar 6 2024
Word count
622 words

8 comments

  1. [2]
    devilized
    Link
    I feel like this thread's title is misleading. "Solar comprises over half of all energy production" is NOT the same as "Solar comprises over half of new energy production added last year". The...

    I feel like this thread's title is misleading. "Solar comprises over half of all energy production" is NOT the same as "Solar comprises over half of new energy production added last year". The article itself says that solar only comprises about 5% of all of the US's current energy production.

    13 votes
    1. drannex
      Link Parent
      Yeah, that's on me. I tried to change their clickbait title to something more accurate. I should have mentioned new energy production. I can't edit the title now, so if someone with that ability...

      Yeah, that's on me. I tried to change their clickbait title to something more accurate. I should have mentioned new energy production.

      I can't edit the title now, so if someone with that ability could that would be great.

      Replace the word "all" with "new"

      6 votes
  2. [2]
    drannex
    Link

    "Solar accounted for most of the capacity the nation added to its electric grids last year. That feat marks the first time since World War II, when hydropower was booming, that a renewable power source has comprised more than half of the nation’s energy additions.

    “It’s really monumental,” said Shawn Rumery, senior director of research at the Solar Energy Industries Association, or SEIA. The trade group announced the 2023 numbers in a report released today [March 6, 2024] with analytics firm Wood MacKenzie. The 32.4 gigawatts that came online in the United States last year shattered the previous high of 23.6 gigawatts recorded in 2021 and accounted for 53 percent of new capacity. Natural gas was next in line at a distant 18 percent.

    6 votes
    1. OBLIVIATER
      Link Parent
      This is super cool! I hope solar continues to grow at such a huge pace!

      This is super cool! I hope solar continues to grow at such a huge pace!

      2 votes
  3. [4]
    PuddleOfKittens
    Link
    The percentage doesn't tell the whole story on its own. For instance, new nuclear plants are projected to last over a century in total lifespan, whereas solar tends to only last 30 years. So that...

    The percentage doesn't tell the whole story on its own. For instance, new nuclear plants are projected to last over a century in total lifespan, whereas solar tends to only last 30 years. So that means solar will need triple the construction rate of nuclear just to match the same proportion of output.

    6 votes
    1. [3]
      Freudianslipservice
      Link Parent
      "Triple the construction rate" is an odd point of comparison. Billions of dollars go into the construction and maintenance of a single nuclear facility producing 55,000 megawatts of power DAILY....

      "Triple the construction rate" is an odd point of comparison.

      Billions of dollars go into the construction and maintenance of a single nuclear facility producing 55,000 megawatts of power DAILY. If it takes 20,000 solar panels to produce the same output, the cost to install, maintain, and replace those over a 100 years is probably still less in the long run. The biggest benefit of a nuclear power plant is the ability to adjust power output to meet demand. I would love to see if a field of 20,000 panels covers more area than a nuclear plant.

      1 vote
      1. scroll_lock
        Link Parent
        Comment box Scope: comment response, information Tone: neutral Opinion: none Sarcasm/humor: none I don’t know about a general answer, but some modern panel arrangements are vertical, with...
        Comment box
        • Scope: comment response, information
        • Tone: neutral
        • Opinion: none
        • Sarcasm/humor: none

        I don’t know about a general answer, but some modern panel arrangements are vertical, with double-sided panels facing east and west. These panels are easy to integrate into existing land uses without needing more space.

        An example might be between rows of low-height crops like soybeans on a farm, where horizontally mounted panels aren’t usually as space-efficient, and where nuclear power plants obviously aren’t. In this use-case, vertical solar wins the comparison by a lot.

        2 votes
      2. PuddleOfKittens
        Link Parent
        The article is specifically talking about construction rate, as a means of implicitly projecting future power sources. I'm saying that this isn't straightforward.

        The article is specifically talking about construction rate, as a means of implicitly projecting future power sources. I'm saying that this isn't straightforward.