– credit, energy.gov, released.
In a staggering statistic, where it took a whole year to add one gigawatt of solar power in 2004, it now takes one single day.
A gigawatt can power around 200,000 homes in the US, and in another staggering statistic, American businesses and governments funded the installation of 30 in 2024 alone.
Indeed, 90% of all grid additions in 2024 were renewable energy sources, including solar, wind, biomass, hydro, and geothermal.
Solar accounted for 80% of all these additions alone, providing 30 gigawatts of electricity, or around 75% of the total renewable energy supply California has installed in the state’s history.
New solar capacity added in 2024 is almost nine times that added by natural gas and nuclear power combined.
There was also a respectable amount of capacity added by new wind power installations, which added 3 gigawatts to state grids. Additionally, 213 megawatts of hydropower, 51 MW of biomass, and 29 MW of geothermal steam were added, taking the total renewable energy footprint in 2024 to 90.5% of all new power sources.
Part of this can be explained by the long-term nature of fossil fuel plants, the builders, financiers, and operators of which have been disincentivized for years to initiate the construction of one of these power plants.
By contrast, solar power, even in large amounts, can be installed incredibly quickly.
Solar’s share of US generating capacity is now 10x greater than a decade ago, and renewables have inched up beyond 30% of the total grid mix 90% of All Power Grid Additions in American During 2024 Were Renewable–Solar Alone Made up 80%.
