The American Clean Power Association (ACP) released its quarterly report, noting that U.S. developers installed 11 GW of utility-scale clean power in Q2 2024.
The United States continues its push to decarbonize its power systems while attaining reliable, low-cost electricity. In its Q2 2024 report, the American Clean Power Association (ACP) highlighted just how quickly this energy transition is gaining momentum.
U.S. developers brought online 11 GW of utility-scale clean energy resources in Q2 2024 alone. This is 91% more than the total for Q2 2023. The strong quarter brought year-to-date installations up to 19 GW, which is more than double the five-year average for first-half installations.
Solar provided around 61% of quarterly clean power installations with around 6.7 GW deployed. The United States now has over 283 GW of operational clean power – enough to power nearly 70 million homes, said ACP.
“Clean energy is answering the call to unleash more American energy, with another record quarter of deployment,” said ACP chief executive officer Jason Grumet. ““With rapidly growing demand and the need to make significant strides in decarbonizing our economy, the stakes are high. Our recent progress is encouraging, but we are not moving fast enough.”
In Q2, solar led the way with 95 projects commissioned and representing 61% of the capacity added. Of the 95 projects, 27 were sized 100 MW or larger. Repsol’s 500 MW Frye Solar project in Texas was the largest in-quarter.
ACP said for the first time, Texas surpassed California as the nation’s leading state for utility-scale solar capacity. With 1,656 MW added this quarter, Texas now has nearly 22 GW of operating solar power.
Utility-scale energy storage is growing rapidly, now reaching over 21.6 GW installed. The nation had barely installed its first gigawatt of storage capacity in 2020, and since then the sector has boomed year after year.
Developers added 2.9 GW of storage in Q2 2024, said the report. The U.S. now has 21,580 MW/60,387 MWh of grid-scale storage. The development pipeline for energy storage grew to 33,401 MW as of Q2 2024, up from 21,069 MW in Q2 2023.
Looking ahead, the clean power project pipeline is enormous. It grew 13% year-over-year to nearly 163 GW of proposed projects. The steady expansion of the pipeline can be attributed primarily to energy storage and solar, which have grown at an average rate of 12% and 3% per quarter since Q2 2022, said ACP.
The utility-scale solar pipeline reached 93,454 MW by the end of Q2 2024, up over 8 GW from 85,328 MW the year prior. Solar projects that are actively under construction have increased by roughly 5 GW year-over-year, said the report.
Manufacturing
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 includes significant incentives for clean energy manufacturers operating in the United States. It has led to a boom in domestic manufacturing.
Within 2024, companies announced 34 new manufacturing facilities or expansions to support the utility-scale clean energy industry. Announcements included 16 solar, 2 onshore wind, 7 offshore wind, 5 battery storage, and 4 transmission manufacturing facilities, said ACP.
Since the passage of IRA through the quarter, there have been over 160 new or expanded manufacturing facilities announced. These facilities are estimated to create over 100,000 new manufacturing jobs, said the report. Within the total announcements, 42 facilities have been built or expanded as of Q2 2024, representing more than 20,000 new jobs, said ACP. More information can be found in ACP’s Investing in America report.
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