Texas, California, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Kansas lead for total renewable energy generation Environment America has released its latest Renewables on the Rise report, which highlights the growth of the US renewable sector. According to the report, the US now produces more than three times as much power from renewables as it did in 2014, with […]
Texas, California, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Kansas lead for total renewable energy generation
Environment America has released its latest Renewables on the Rise report, which highlights the growth of the US renewable sector.
According to the report, the US now produces more than three times as much power from renewables as it did in 2014, with growth in all 50 states.
Texas, California, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Kansas were the leading states for total renewable energy generation in 2023. That same year, 15 states generated 30 percent or more of their electricity from renewable sources, a significant increase from just two states achieving this in 2014.
Texas was ranked first in wind generation and second in solar, with 199,836GWh and 31,739GWh of generation capacity in 2023, respectively. Data center operators have taken advantage of this significant growth, with numerous power purchase agreements signed within the Texan market over 2024. Google alone has signed four solar PPAs in Texas in 2024 for over 1GW of total capacity.
The most significant growth was seen in the solar sector, with more than eight times the solar capacity than in 2014. Wind saw a smaller jump, growing 2.3 times its 2014 level, mostly within the onshore market.
From 2014 to 2023, solar power capacity in Southeastern states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia) surged 33 times its 2014 level.
The Virginian solar market, in particular, saw a massive jump from 2020, when solar produced 1584GWh, to 6072GWh in 2023. With Virginia expected to have a 100 percent increase in electricity usage in the next 15 years, driven primarily by the data center sector, its continual leadership in solar development is increasingly important.
Finally, the report revealed that at the end of 2023, the US had reached 15.5GW in battery energy storage capacity, an increase of 97 fold compared to 2014 and 72 percent higher than at the end of 2022.
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/environment-america-us-renewable-output-triples-since-2014/
