The Trump administration has reduced green energy incentives, freezes wind farm construction, orders coal burning power plants, and orders them to continue running longer than planned. Still, more American homes and businesses are gaining power from sources that can be renewed more than ever and for more money.
In June, nearly a quarter of US power generation was green, up from 18% year-on-year, according to data compiled by the US Energy Information Agency. The question is whether President Donald Trump will continue to return to the White House.
Recent growth in renewable energy use has almost certainly been linked to investments made before Trump’s election in November. Under former President Joe Biden, the United States supported a roughly $100 billion investment in clean energy. Now, the Trump administration is working towards those efforts by opposing offshore wind farms and removing incentives for electric vehicles and solar power generation.
Still, Texas is a prime example of how the energy market has changed. In early March, the state grid set records for wind power generation. In mid-June, a new peak of electricity produced from renewable resources was registered. A month later, Texas achieved new highs for battery storage and solar power.
Similar records are appearing around the country almost weekly as utilities harvest the wild flows from new solar and wind farms that can be built faster and more affordable than fossil fuel-based power plants.
For the utilities and people who run the country’s electricity grid, the rashes in data centers focused on volatile weather, electric vehicles and AI have all grown demand, so the waves of green energy have not come at a better time.
In April, almost a third of US electricity was generated from renewable sources as grid operators protected the heatwave. And the green energy boom has spread beyond the belt of the sun and wind. The New York Grid recorded a replayable record on June 24th. New England recorded new highs in both wind and solar this summer, with grids in the Mid-Atlantic states reporting record-breaking renewable harvests in late June.
“This isn’t too fast because we’re in a whole new landscape for load growth,” says Forest Bradley Wright, director of state and utility policy at the American Council for an energy-efficient economy. “You need to call all available solutions.”
If all of California utility-owned solar panels were considered one facility, they were ranked as the world’s second largest power plant at the end of July. At noon on July 30th, the state’s Kaisogrid solar system hit 21.7 megawatts, second only to the capabilities of three valley dams on the Yangtze River in China.
For most of the day, the sun accounted for about two-thirds of Californians, and panels were fed into batteries, and as the sun sets, almost a third of the state was juiced.
The Texas electricity market is truly wild on the west side of electricity.
As a deregulated wholesale market, state consumers can choose providers, and plants are paid only for what they produce. In this world of diet-kill energy, utilities are put together in a new tool: a large battery.
These so-called storage facilities allow power players to shut off the electrons when demand is low and drain the juice when usage reaches peak. Often, the most economical strategy is to store solar power during the day and release it when the lights and TV are turned on in the evening and the air conditioner is still humming.
This year, Texas has turned on rashes from new storage facilities, reinforcing the grid with record amounts of reserve.
In Wyoming, the largest coal-producing state in the United States, it is common for tractor trailers to be blown to their side. This is the power of the wind on the Great Plains. And it’s not only stable, but strong.
The southwest power pool grid, which stretches from the south of Dakota to Texas, has hit two new records of wind power generation in August alone. At one point on August 16th, almost two of the three electrons in the system were coming from the turbine.
Good, cheap, fast? Usually, you can only choose two of them. But now solar, wind and other renewable energy sources are clicking on all three of these boxes when it comes to electricity production. According to a Lazard study, so-called green energy is currently the lowest cost and fastest generator in the United States, even without incentives.
Given President Donald Trump’s attack on green power, the decisions made by the utility have become more difficult than usual and a little more complicated than simply choosing the cheapest plants to build. In May, Gordon van Welie, CEO of ISO New England Grid, told the Federal Energy Regulation Commission that his organization relied on massive offshore winds to meet the growing demand. Three months later, the Trump administration ordered its crews to halt work on the project off the coast of Rhode Island. There, 45 of 65 planned turbines have already been installed and now must be defended in court.
The facility was expected to power around 350,000 homes. Administrations say the sun and wind are unreliable and are linked to a China-based supply chain. But Trump’s term will be long before he could build a new coal-fired or nuclear power plant to replace his capabilities.
“There’s more electrons needed in this country, and the industry seems to have an agnostic view,” says Samuel Scrogins, managing director at Lazard, as to where the electrons came from. “In fact, renewables are ready to build and are below the cost of replacement costs.”
The stock is written in Bloomberg.
