Will solar and wind energy lead the growth in US power generation?

Solar and wind energy will lead the growth in U.S. power generation for at least the next two years, according to EIA estimates. This report uses data from the EIA to analyze solar and wind capacity and generation over the past decade (2014 to 2023) in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Do climate mitigation scenarios predict wind and solar power growth?

Nature Energy 6, 742–754 (2021) Cite this article Climate mitigation scenarios envision considerable growth of wind and solar power, but scholars disagree on how this growth compares with historical trends.

Where do solar and wind power data come from?

All national and state-level data come from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Utility-scale solar and wind summer capacity values for 2014-2022 are as reported in EIA’s Historical State Data for each year.

What is the average growth rate for solar power?

For all the countries in the stable and stalling phases both models converge in their estimates of the growth rates (Extended Data Fig. 2 and Supplementary Table 1) with a median of 0.8% (interquartile range (IQR) 0.6–1.1%) for wind and 0.6% (IQR 0.4–0.9%) for solar power (Table 2, Extended Data Figs. 4 and 5 and Supplementary Tables 18 and 19).

Is solar energy a significant land use?

One concern regarding large-scale deployment of solar energy is its potentially significant land use. Estimates of land use in the existing literature are often based on simplified assumptions, including power plant configurations that do not reflect actual development practices to date.

Which geospatial data is best for field-scale solar PV and wind installations?

Two final datasets were produced that represent the best publicly available global, harmonized geospatial data for field-scale solar PV and wind installations (Fig. 5). We provide vector data (point and polygon) for grouped installations (more than two features; Methods), in Eckert IV equal area projection.