There’s dirty energy, and there’s clean energy: which would you prefer?
The accompanying chart indicating new power generation facilities to be added to the US grid this year has a very healthy shade of gold: out of a total of 54.5GW, more than half, 29.1GW, will be from solar power, by far the cheapest form of power generation available to us.
In addition, 9.4GW of battery capacity is to be added and 15.6GW of generating capacity will be removed from the grid, almost exclusively from gas (-6.2GW), coal (-8.9GW) and fuel oil (0.4GW) fired plants. Batteries do not generate electricity, but they are increasingly fulfilling the equivalent function of a power plant by sending energy to the grid when needed. Installation will rise from 11% of new capacity during 2022 (5.1GW) to 17% in 2023, for a total of 9.4GW of new batteries.
The country, while still building some capacity in combined cycle plants fueled by a dirty fossil fuel such as gas, seems to be clear that the future is moving towards oversizing the generation fabric through clean renewables and batteries, and phasing out coal and hydrocarbon powered plants.
The important thing here is not simply the figures and what they mean in terms of savings in emissions and health improvements for people living near power plants, and for the planet as a whole, but the evidence that this transition is…
