In its latest report (which includes data through July 31, 2023), the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) said that solar energy provides approximately 1,824 megawatts (MW) of new input into the US’s electricity generation capacity. In other words, more than 67.2 percent of the total capacity added in the USA in July 2023 was provided by solar energy. Thus, the share of solar energy in the total installed production capacity in the USA increased to 7.12 percent.USA is growing rapidly in solar energy
In its latest “Monthly Electric Energy” report, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that solar-generated electricity increased by 22.3 percent during the month compared to July 2022. While this growth rate was higher than all other energy sources, there was a 26.6 percent increase in rooftop solar energy. However, the estimated total solar power across all sectors (26,785 GWh) surpassed the electricity provided by hydropower (21,500 GWh) to nearly equal the electricity provided by U.S. utility-scale wind farms (27,726 GWh).
The strong performance of solar energy in July is expected to become a trend. Because FERC expects a total of 84,392 MW to be added to solar energy between August 2023 and July 2026. This number is almost four times that expected from wind power (21,341 MW) and almost 20 times that reported for natural gas (4,660 MW). However, it is also said that these growth forecasts may be conservative.
The gap between solar and natural gas is narrowing
On the other hand, if these predictions come true, solar energy will constitute more than 12.9 percent of the installed production capacity of the USA by mid-summer 2026. With this rate, solar energy will surpass wind (12.4 percent), oil (2.6 percent) and nuclear (7.5 percent). Solar energy, which is expected to lag behind coal (13.8 percent) by a small margin, still has a long way to go. Because in three years, natural gas will still constitute the largest share (41.8 percent) of the installed production capacity. In contrast, the mix of all renewable sources (i.e. solar plus wind, hydropower, geothermal and biomass) will total 34.1 percent.Solar energy’s strong growth in both new capacity and actual electricity production confirms that the solar energy era has begun. While solar power will account for more than one-eighth of U.S. generating capacity within three years, the total generating capacity of all renewables is likely to exceed that of coal or nuclear power and approach that of natural gas.
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