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US solar power capacity to expand by record 32 gigawatts in 2023, report says (www.reuters.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The U.S. solar industry expects to add a record 32 gigawatts (GW) of production capacity this year, up 53% on new capacity in 2022 and helped by investment incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act, a report published on Thursday showed.

32 GW is a lot. The average thermal coal generating station in the US is 1GW and these stations have an average capacity of 50%. That means that this colar prodution capacity enables us to displace 64 coal stations during the daytime if consumption does not grow.

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[–] jennwiththesea 15 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Looks like 4200 gigawatts/yr. https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/electricity-in-the-us-generation-capacity-and-sales.php

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So not quite 1% even. Progress is progress, I guess.

What is scary is that barely 1% represents a hella lot of coal plants.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Actually, it looks like renewables have overtaken coal, with the majority of fossil fuel energy being provided by natural gas plants. I'm personally fine with newer LNG plants, since they (1) are actually quite clean, and (2) burn a byproduct that we get from making gasoline.

Source: https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Last i saw the US had just got to the point of having more solar generation than coal, it's a great milestone because in this broken world it means we'll have not solar lobbyists than coal lobbyists

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I think you mean Twh not Gwh.. For reference Norway produces about 150 Twh a year

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

His unit was GW, not GWh. Maybe you are talking about the same if you multiply by 365x24.

[–] jennwiththesea 2 points 1 year ago

I'm honestly not sure. Their mixed use of billions, trillions, kilo, giga, etc was confusing me.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

That's 4200 TWh/year, or 480 GW.

Though that ignores the power consumption that isn't electrical yet, like transportation and heating.