I ran across an excellent graphic from the folks at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) NREL and SETO. The below is from their Solar Future Study Fact Sheet (2021). In their study they projected the generation mix if the US was to obtain 95% decarbonization by 2035 and 100% decarbonization by 2050. Notable is the diminishing of the black bar (fossil fuels) as you move from left to right, and the growth of the orange bar (solar) from left to right.
Also notable is the growth of the darker blue bar on the right (Transportation), from near zero to electricity usage that is roughly the same as Industry.
In the short term, the US didn’t make a lot of progress in Q1 2022 with respect to utility-scale Solar PV, according to SEIA/Wood Mackenzie. Installed utility-scale Solar PV was 2,173 MWdc, down 41% from Q1 2021 and down 64% from Q4 2021. Supply-chain constraints and the Department of Commerce’s anti-circumvention investigation into solar PV equipment supply contributed to the Q1 headwinds.
The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act will provide a very nice boost, and a good summary of the Act on the clean energy industry can be found at HeatSpring.
