In 2024, the US power grid added more capacity of solar energy in a single year in more than two decades, according to a new industry report published on Tuesday.
The data was published one day after the new US Energy Minister Chris Wright, who strongly criticized two fronts of solar and wind energy. He said on Monday at the beginning of Ceraweek from S&P Global, an annual energy conference in Houston that they could not meet the growing electricity needs of the world and that their use increases the energy costs.
In the report created by the Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie, a research company, around 50 gigawatts of new solar generation capacity was added last year, much more than any other power source.
Mr. Wright and President Trump have strongly criticized renewable energies that former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. The Minister of Energy, Mr. Trump and the Republicans in Congress have undertaken to undo many of the climate and energy policy of Mr. Biden.
“In addition to the obvious scaling and cost problems, there is simply no physical way how wind, solar and batteries can replace the countless use of natural gas,” said Wright, who was previously managing director of an oil and gas production company.
However, solar energy and battery storage systems seem to have considerable dynamics and may not be slightly thwarted. The US Energy Information Management, which is part of Mr. Wright’s department, said last month that she had expected that solar and batteries would continue to be leading New capacity installations On US Electric Grids this year.
Proponents of Clean Energy celebrated the milestone for solar energy when the world moves to increase electricity generation in order to meet the needs of energy -hungry data centers in order to support the growth of artificial intelligence.
“There is a wild consent that we have to have enough electricity, and there are facts that show that the fastest way and the cheapest way to do this by using solar and storage,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, President and Chief Executive of the Solar Association, in an interview in Ceraweek.
In a panel discussion, the head of one of the country’s largest supply companies recognized the ability of Solar to deliver a new generation of electricity quickly and cheaply.
“Renewable energies are now ready to go because they were in operation,” said John Ketchum, President and Managing Director of Nextera Energy, the largest US producer of renewable energies and the parent company of Florida Power & Light, a supply company that has power plants, which has natural gas.
But Mr. Wright said that the growing use of solar and wind power increases electricity costs, which has increased steadily in recent years. Part of this increase was on the strong increase in the costs of oil and natural gas to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and upgrades to networks, the experts say that the supply companies have been excited for many years.
“Wind and solar, the favorites of the last administration and so much worldwide today, deliver around 3 percent of global primary energy,” said Wright. “Wherever the wind and sun effort has increased significantly, the prices for the network and the stability of the network fell.”
The electricity rates across the country reached their highest level in 2024 and in December in December in December increased average to $ 162.60 per month for the typical hours of use of 1,000 kilowatts, compared to $ 156.90 a year before Latest federal data.
Even if the prices rise, the electricity requirement is expected to increase drastically. In the next 20 years, Mr. Ketchum predicted an increase in electricity demand by 55 percent, almost a fifth of it in connection with the growth of data centers, whereby the production and industrial growth make up a large part of the rest.
In view of the forecasts for the increased electricity requirement, the government said that governments should concentrate on affordability, reliability and security of domestic and global energy without losing sight of the concerns about climate change.
“There will be bumps on the street,” said Ernest Moniz, the Obama government’s energy secretary, about a panel discussion in Ceraweek. “We move to this carbon -low future.”
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