U.S. clean power capacity crosses 200 GW despite slowing deployment

Despite an installation pace that fell 3 percent last year, the United States has officially crossed a 200 GW milestone for clean energy capacity deployment, according to the latest report from the American Clean Power Association (ACP).

In its Clean Power Quarterly 2021 Q4 Market Report, the association noted that 1,000 projects remain in development and hailed the 27.7 GW installed last year. However, more than 11.4 additional GW were pushed back until 2022 or 2023 due to various issues, from trade policies and regulatory changes to supply issues and expiring tax credits. That uncertainty proved infectious, and the ACP warned that installations fell significantly short overall of what is needed to achieve a net zero emissions goal of 2035.

“Surpassing over 200 gigawatts of clean energy is a significant milestone for the United States and shows that we can achieve even more with strong public policy support for the industry,” Heather Zichal, ACP CEO, said. “Although the U.S. has reached this incredible achievement, more needs to be done, at a faster pace, to reach the climate goals and targets our country needs to achieve. We urge Congress to take action to create a clean energy future that will help create more good-paying American jobs and combat the climate crisis.”

At present, the association said that the industry is building only 45 percent of what is needed each year to achieve the 2035 goal. Changing that would require major policy changes.

Even so, clean power deployments last year represented about $39 billion for the energy sector, with wind and solar deploying at a similar rate: wind power capacity grew by 12,747 MW last year, whereas solar finished slightly behind, at 12,364 MW. Battery storage installations had a great year, though, topping 2020’s rollout with the deployment of 2,599 MW. Power purchase agreements included 28 GW last year.

Texas deployed the most clean energy by far, with 7,352 MW of new capacity, while the next nearest was California, with 2,697 MW. This trend should continue in 2022, with Texas accounting for 17 percent of clean power under construction or in advanced development, and California with 11 percent. New York will rank third, with 7 percent of new projects. In total, 120,171 MW of new capacity are in the development pipeline.

Despite the warnings from ACP, 2021 should be recognized as the second-largest year on record for combined wind, solar, and energy storage installations and a record year for power purchase agreements linked to clean power.