The United States electricity grid added more skills from solar energy in 2024 than from any other source in just one year more than two decades, according to a new report in the sector published on Tuesday.
The data were released the day after the new secretary of the Energy of the United States, Chris Wright, strongly criticized solar and wind energy on two fronts. He said on Monday at the beginning of Ceraweek from S&P Global, an annual conference on Energy to Houston, who could not meet the growing electricity needs of the world and that their use was increasing energy costs.
The report, produced by the Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie, a research company, said that last year about 50 gigawatt of new solar generation capacity were added, much more than any other source of electricity.
Wright and President Trump have been strongly critical of renewable energy, which former president Joseph R. Biden Jr. supported as a way to face climate change. The secretary of energy, Mr. Trump and the Republicans at Congress have undertaken to cancel many of Biden’s climatic and energy policies.
“Beyond the obvious scale and cost problems, there is simply a physical wind, the sun and batteries could replace the myriad of uses of natural gas,” said Wright, who previously was the CEO of an oil and gas production company.
However, energy conservation systems and sun battery seem to have a significant moment and may not be easily contrasted. The US Energy Information Administration, which is part of the Department of Mr. Wright, said last month that the solar and batteries expected to continue to conduct new ability installations on US electrical networks this year.
The supporters of clean energy celebrated the milestone for solar energy while the world moves to increase the production of electricity to meet the needs of the related energy data centers to support the growth of artificial intelligence.
“There is a wild agreement that to do so, we must have enough electricity, and there are facts that show that the fastest way to do it and the cheapest way to do so is through the deployment of the sun and storage,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Association, in an interview with Ceraweek.
In a discussion of the panel, the leader of one of the largest public service companies in the nation has recognized Solar’s ability to provide a new generation of electricity quickly and economicly.
“The renewable energies are ready to go right now because they have been operational,” said John Ketchum, president and CEO of Nextera Energy, the largest American renewable energy producer and the mother company of Florida Power & Light, a utility that has power plants that burn natural gas.
But Mr. Wright said that the growing use of solar and wind energy was increasing the cost of electricity, which has constantly increased the last two years. Some of this increase have been due to the strong leap in the costs of oil and natural gas after the invasion of Ukraine of 2022 of Russia and to the updates to the grids that experts say that public services had postponed for many years.
“Wind and sunny, the dear of the last administration and so much in the world today, provide about 3 % of global primary energy,” said Wright. “Wherever the wind and sun penetration have increased significantly, the prices on the grill have increased and the stability of the grill has decreased.”
Electricity rates across the country reached their highest levels in 2024, increasing on average by 4 % at national level to $ 162.60 per month in December for the typical 1,000 kilowattare of use, compared to $ 156.90 a year earlier, according to the latest federal data.
Even if prices increase, the electricity demand should increase drastically. Ketchum provided for a 55 % increase in the demand for electricity in the next 20 years, almost a fifth of that relating to the growth of data centers, with the production and industrial growth that represent much of the rest.
Given the projections for the increase in the demand for electricity, energy experts have said that governments should focus on the convenience, reliability and safety of domestic and global energy not losing sight of the concerns about climate change.
“There will be bumps on the road,” said Ernest Moniz, secretary of energy in the Obama administration, on a round table in Ceraweek. “We are moving to this low carbon future in this future.”