Here’s something folks might not know: since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration, total installed solar power in the US has doubled, and zero-carbon power plants will make up 96% of new capacity that will be installed this year. 🔌💡 - ThreadSky

costasamaras.com • 199 days ago

Here’s something folks might not know: since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration, total installed solar power in the US has doubled, and zero-carbon power plants will make up 96% of new capacity that will be installed this year. 🔌💡

Reposted from Brendan Nyhan

New Broockman and Kalla: "telling voters something they don’t know is often the best route to changing their minds"

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abysmallytall.bsky.social•199 days ago

How much of the increase was due to already existing factors vs initiatives under the Biden / Harris admin? I know I can look that up, but I'm asking in hopes you might have a good resource off hand given the background in your bio.

costasamaras.com•199 days ago

some context in my post below but Admin policies shifted it into high gear. We showed how clean energy projections changed under Admin in this blog post: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/blog/2023/12/19/building-a-thriving-clean-energy-economy-in-2023-and-beyond/

https://bsky.app/profile/costasamaras.bsky.social/post/3krw32ydkig2v

abysmallytall.bsky.social•199 days ago

This is helpful, thank you! Even though I'd count myself as a critic of the Biden admin overall, it's only fair to acknowledge and understand the good things as well.

neqone.bsky.social•199 days ago

Do we know what were the big drivers of the leveling off and decline from 2015-2020?

mikel08.bsky.social•199 days ago

Largely uncertainty surrounding renewable energy tax credit incentives! When businesses aren’t sure what the policy landscape will look like, their risk aversion keeps them from investing in new capital intensive projects like renewables. https://www.vox.com/2016/1/27/10849564/renewable-energy-tax-credits-big-deal

mikel08.bsky.social•199 days ago

A similar effect can be seen in 2021 since that’s when the 2016 tax credits expired. This is also why the IRA is a big deal, as it ensures the tax credits stick around until at least 2032. Policy certainty = action from private industry

costasamaras.com•54 days ago

Looked this up today and the rate of utility scale solar power installations per month has TRIPLED since the start of the Biden-Harris Admin. And 12 Hoover Dams worth of batteries got connected to the grid. There is lots more to do, but the progress on especially solar and batteries is phenomenal.

costasamaras.com•53 days ago

The Biden-Harris climate laws made clean energy cheap, & provided a standalone energy storage credit for the 1st time, which helped deployment. Now:
- utility scale solar installations per month tripled
- residential solar installed capacity doubled
- 12 Hoover Dams-worth of grid batteries added 💡🔌

pastbriton.bsky.social•53 days ago

Batteries have made surprising progress.

coolnameliz.bsky.social•54 days ago

Today in Texas during the day was ~50k MW and during the peak demand, wind and solar was ~30k MW, imagine if we had distributed battery storage. Full notes, it was a relatively mild winter day, solar and wind both did great. Why we need more distributed battery.

parasocialista.bsky.social•54 days ago

CAISO demand during the back of the duck bill today was just under 19 MW, and renewables supplied just under 16 MW (84%)

Meanwhile peak battery charging was over 7 kW midday, which was discharged during the afternoon ramp up, displacing natural gas or import usage MW for MW

jeffanddonkeys.bsky.social•53 days ago

Meanwhile, we are producing and shipping for burning more fossil fuels than any other country in the history of the world.
So whatever the objective of all that solar power is, it's clearly NOT to reduce fossil fuel burning.

freedomforall.net•199 days ago

In 2023 China accounted for 63% of global renewable installations - 298 gigawatts of the 473GW total.

We must not mistake China's success for a global one.

Via The FT. https://www.ft.com/content/3043fca2-111c-441f-985b-557aa2efa3a0?accessToken=zwAGHfWtKlp4kc8wQ_yiERxEH9OYW1V6ou-joA.MEQCIHomWLV9AB-R6QWO07JledDnOuW2hDkIYwOhf20Pd5kWAiBY6T9mOc6cTdHJpE5rIpXF9PYr_sS1jrOgaQc6l8dBig&sharetype=gift&token=49d2559d-6755-418c-b326-c969283a6438

evodaily.bsky.social•199 days ago

👏

torrleonard.bsky.social•199 days ago

I don’t think most swing voters give a hoot about that.

bluegeorgist.bsky.social•54 days ago

Likely true, unfortunately.

unorlis.bsky.social•199 days ago

The quiet transition to green energy has been amazing and making me very hopeful for the future.

Change can happen very fast

bluegeorgist.bsky.social•54 days ago

Green vortex is winning.

weedramatic.bsky.social•199 days ago

I've also seen a lot of messaging about GA Power adding significant natural gas power to the grid to prepare for data centers. How does that reconcile with the overall number? Can GA be such an exception?
(scary thing is GA could be exceptional, I hate the GA public utilities commission)

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