Solar PV has led capacity additions in the US during the first half of the year with 12GW.
According to data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) latest report “Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory”, solar PV accounted for 59% of all additions.
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All utility-scale technologies combined added 20.2GW in H1 2024, a 3.6GW increase from the same period a year ago. The EIA expects 42.6GW of capacity to be added in the second half of 2024, of which 25GW would come from utility-scale solar PV.
Solar PV could end 2024 with 37GW of new installed capacity, a record for a single year and doubling the numbers from 2023 when it added 18.8GW. Estimates from the EIA are only a gigawatt short of the predictions made by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie earlier this year. However, the estimates from the latter account for all markets of the solar industry – which includes residential, community solar and commercial and industrial – and not just utility-scale.
The two leading states for solar PV, Texas and California, accounted for 38% of solar additions during H1 2024. However, the largest project to come online during that period came from Nevada. With an installed PV capacity of 690MW, the Gemini solar-plus-storage project, developed and built by investment fund Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners and its subsidiary, independent power producer (IPP) Primergy Solar, was the largest project to come online in the US this year.
BESS: second-most additions in H1 24
The Gemini solar-plus-storage project was not only the largest solar PV project to come online in H1 2024, but also the largest battery energy storage system (BESS) one to come online with an output of 380MW. BESS accounted for the second-most capacity additions until the end of June 2024, with 4.2GW. Battery additions were concentrated in four US states, California (37% of all additions), Texas (24%), Arizona (19%) and Nevada (13%).
The EIA expects BESS to add 10.8GW of capacity in H2 2024 and could end up the year with a record installation of 15GW in a single year. Texas and California currently account for 81% of expected BESS capacity additions in H2 2024.
Similar to the Gemini project, the second largest BESS project to come online in the first half of 2024 is a solar-plus-storage. US utility Salt River Project (SRP) and Danish energy company Ørsted powered the Eleven Mile Solar Center project in Arizona earlier this year, with an installed solar capacity of 300MW and a BESS capacity of 300MW/1.2GWh. Prior to its completion, the companies had secured a power purchase agreement with social media and tech giant Meta.
Texas was home to the second largest PV project coming online during the first six months of 2024, with the 640MW Lumina solar plant. The project is owned by renewables developer Intersect Power, which has a 2.2GW solar PV operational portfolio.
