Solar energy capacity in the United States is expanding at an unprecedented pace, according to new data released by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
As compiled by Electrek, in the first month of 2024, solar power accounted for 2,527 megawatts (MW) of newly installed generation capacity, accounting for 87.3% of all new energy capacity.
According to Electrek, this brings the total available installed generation capacity from renewable energy sources (solar, wind, hydro, biomass, geothermal) up to 376.33 gigawatts (GW), which is more than the total generation capacity of the United States. This corresponds to 29.17% of the total. This is almost twice the installed capacity of coal (207.15GW).
Simply put, solar energy is on the rise and coal burning is on the decline.
This is a big problem for the planet because coal, one of the main types of dirty energy that our society has relied on for far too long, produces large amounts of air pollution and gases that overheat the planet.
On the contrary, sunlight is a clean renewable energy that can be harvested infinitely from the sun. While some pollution occurs during the production of solar panels and related technologies, it is far less than the total amount of pollution caused by other forms of dirty energy such as coal and methane gas (the main component of “natural gas”) is.
Dirty energy proponents (often industry-employed lobbyists) persuade policymakers and the public that we will never be able to generate enough clean energy to completely replace gas and oil. However, the numbers show otherwise. For example, in California recently renewable energy generated 100% of the state's demand for most of the month.
“If only we could be sure that the sun would always be there for us, and we wouldn't have to fight over whether we'd get it or not, because some people have it and some people don't. Someday we will never find a clean sun. The energy source will one day run out,” one commenter wrote sarcastically.
“Solar power is the obvious winner. The bigger challenge is that we continue to invent new ways to use electricity, such as Bitcoin mining, data centers, and margarita mixers,” another noted.
“Everything beats 'clean' coal,” a third person wrote.
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