U.S. Solar Production Booming for 2024 YTD

Last year, the US’s Energy Information Agency (EIA) forecast that over half (54%) of new electric-generating capacity would be solar, with a lot of it coming online near the end of the year for tax reasons. The EIA recently released electricity generation numbers for the first five months of 2024, and those numbers show that the expected solar power construction boom is well underway: generation by solar power has increased by 25 percent compared to the same time period (January – May) just one year earlier.

The EIA breaks down solar production according to the size of the plant. Large grid-scale facilities — facilities with 1 megawatt or greater generation capacity — have their production tracked, giving the EIA hard numbers. Smaller installations — such as residential solar are frequently “behind the meter” so the EIA estimates this solar production by tracking lower-than-expected power consumption.

Residential solar made big gains across the U.S. last year, with California leading the way in added solar generation capacity and Texas coming in a close second. Californians are increasingly combining residential solar generation with battery storage, making their homes more resilient from power outages.

For the first five months of 2024, utility-scale solar energy production rose by 29 percent compared to the same period of 2023. Small-scale solar was estimated to have increased by 18 percent, with the combined categories of solar power rising by 25.3 percent, compared to the first five months of 2023.

U.S. solar power generation peaks during the longer daylight hours of the summer months; for this year utility-scale solar electric generation is expected to be 89.5 megawatts. Of renewable sources, only wind power (145.7 megawatts, 41.25%) generation is expected to exceed solar power.

Related:

Renewable Electricity Infrastructure and Resources Dashboard (EIA)