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The American Clean Power Association (ACP) has released a report on clean energy growth in the US in 2024. The report highlights a surge in deployment in the 3rd quarter — 10.2 gigawatts (GW) of new clean energy capacity. “This record-setting quarter positions the industry to achieve a historic year in 2024, underscoring the strength of American clean power,” ACP writes.
Through the first three quarters of the year, 29.6 GW of clean power capacity have been installed. That’s 86% more than in the first three quarters of 2023. In total, the US now has 294 GW of clean power capacity installed, or enough to power 72 million US homes.
That’s all data from the association’s Clean Power Quarterly Market Report. ACP also recently put out a report on its expectations for the future of the US utility-scale solar market, the Solar Market Monitor. It was produced by S&P Global Commodity Insights. The report forecasts that 32 GW of utility-scale solar installations will be added in 2024. Furthermore, “The U.S. solar market is projected to grow with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 6.6% from 2025 to 2030, reaching 37 GW of annual new installations in the final year of this decade.” That means an expected growth of total utility-scale solar capacity of 16% by 2030.
“Solar capital costs are expected to continue decreasing, with a projected 14% reduction by 2035, primarily driven by declining module prices,” ACP adds. “The biannual Solar Market Monitor delivers insights into current and future solar market trends, covering capacity, project economics, technological developments, policy developments, and power market outlooks.”
Circling back to the Clean Power Quarterly Market Report, ACP also provides the following key stats for different segments of the industry:
- Utility-Scale Solar: 6.3 GW of new solar capacity was added in Q3 alone, bringing the total to nearly 20 GW installed year-to-date. As a result, 2024 is poised to shatter the previous annual record of 21.3 GW installed in 2023.
- Energy Storage: Energy storage had another impressive quarter, adding 3.5 GW of new capacity, bringing the year-to-date total to 7.5 GW.
- States Lead the Charge: States across the country—such as Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi—have joined the list of top clean power installers in Q3 2024 for the first time.
- Wind Pipeline Grows: The land-based wind pipeline saw upward movement in the third quarter, increasing three percent from the second quarter to reach 24.4 GW. The offshore wind pipeline grew to 15.5 GW in the third quarter, up 3.3 GW from the second quarter.
Overall, the core story is clear: clean energy installations and energy storage installations continue to grow strongly. This year has been a particularly good year, and part of that may be a rush of installations in anticipation of threats to solar and wind power subsidies under a new Republican administration and Congress. The 4th quarter should be a very big quarter for solar and wind power, but I’m not so sure about 2025. We’ll see.
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