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2024 Trends Charted a Cleaner U.S. Grid

By Lori Lovely | Jan 27, 2025
Illustration of a city with solar panels, wind turbines, a power tower, and battery storage. Image by SMA America.
Clean energy surged in 2024—particularly in Texas and California, which turned to solar and batteries to ease grid issues in the face of rising demand and extreme weather. Five examples indicate how clean energy is transforming the nation’s grid.     

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Clean energy surged in 2024—particularly in Texas and California, which turned to solar and batteries to ease grid issues in the face of rising demand and extreme weather. Five examples indicate how clean energy is transforming the nation’s grid.            

Solar and wind blow coal away

In 2024, more electricity was generated from wind and solar than from coal—edging out nuclear energy and hydropower. Unlike those two, wind and solar are being built at scale and are expected to continue at that pace into the future.

Even fossil gas beat out coal in the United States, although, according to a December 2024 International Energy Agency report, coal demand could set a new record worldwide this year and is expected to remain at that level through 2027.

Batteries beat gas

Ten years ago, California decided to stop building new fossil-fueled plants. Instead, it built enormous batteries to supply on-demand power. Thanks to policy and pilot tests, the Golden State now has 11.2 gigawatts (GW) of installed battery capacity—enough to supply one-fifth of the California Independent System Operator’s peak demand on its own.

A test came in April, when evening battery dispatch spiked. According to energy data firm Grid Status, Chicago, the evening battery discharge coincided with the decline in fossil gas dispatch to keep the lights on after sunset.

 Solar and storage conquer big Texas heat

Despite ongoing construction of gas plants in Texas, the Lone Star State saw more construction of wind, utility-scale solar and battery plants than California last year. From a record of 2,000 megawatts (MW) of instantaneous solar production in 2020, ERCOT solar production was upward of 21,000 MW last year, beating California’s record for utility-scale solar production of nearly 20,000 MW.

Batteries also hit a record discharge level of 4,348 MW on Oct. 25.

Thanks to clean energy competition from solar and batteries, when ERCOT set an all-time demand record of nearly 86 GW on Aug. 20, 2024, at 4:45 p.m., the unprecedented demand didn’t come with a material spike in energy prices.

“Here they’re setting a pretty big record, and prices are very low because it was coincident with solar,” explained Connor Waldoch, co-founder and head of strategy at Grid Status.

Solar outshines other energy sources

Fifteen states from the upper Midwest to the Gulf Coast reported record solar generation in the grid managed by the Midwest Independent System Operator (MISO) in 2024.

In 2023, MISO achieved 1,817 MW in solar production, but by January of last year, it reached 3,300 MW and by October, that number climbed to more than 8,000 MW. The rate of growth quadrupled in less than two years, meaning that MISO’s peak solar production grew even faster than ERCOT’s in the last two years.

Even the U.K. generated more electricity from renewables than from fossil fuels for the first time ever last year. While wind, solar and hydropower reached 40% market share, Britain closed its last remaining coal plant, the Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station in Nottinghamshire, in September 2024.

About The Author

Lori Lovely is an award-winning writer and editor in central Indiana. She writes on technical topics, heavy equipment, automotive, motorsports, energy, water and wastewater, animals, real estate, home improvement, gardening and more. Reach her at: [email protected]


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