EIA: Wind, solar and batteries account for 82 percent of new electric-generating capacity

According to a new report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the majority of new, utility-scale generating capacity in 2023 comes from wind, solar, and battery storage.

The report, Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory, published Monday, said that the three technologies make up 82 percent of the new electric-generating capacity developers plan to bring online in the United States. Just over half of that comes from solar power.

According to the report, as the cost of solar panels dropped since 2010 and state and federal policies provided generous tax incentives, solar capacity has boomed. As of January 2023, 73.5 gigawatts of solar capacity was operating nationwide. If all planned solar capacity comes online as expected, it will be the most U.S. solar capacity added in a single year, the report said, and in the first year, more than half of the capacity additions are solar.

Similarly, wind capacity has grown due to tax incentives, lower turbine construction costs, and new renewable energy targets. As of January 2023, 141.3 GW of wind capacity was operating in the U.S. Developers plan to add another 7.1 GW in 2023, the report said.

“The majority of U.S. wind capacity is located in the blustery central part of the country, which also offers wide-open prairies that can accommodate large wind farms. Offshore wind farms along the country’s coastline offer significant potential for future wind capacity growth. This year, developers are planning one new offshore wind farm,” the report said.

The report said that batteries are increasingly being installed with wind and solar projects to store the energy created by intermittent sources of generation (wind and solar). In 2023, developers plan to add 8.6 GW of battery storage capacity, doubling the current U.S. total.

Although significant renewable capacity has been added in the past decade, differences in the amount of electricity that different types of power plants can produce mean that wind and solar made up about 17 percent of the country’s utility-scale capacity in 2021 but produced only 12 percent of the country’s electricity.