Solar to dominate new U.S. electric-generating capacity in 2023, EIA says

Timber House, the city's first mass-timber condo building in Brooklyn, New York
Solar panels are seen along with a view of the neighborhood and lower Manhattan from the rooftop of Timber House, the city's first mass-timber condo building, in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, U.S., August 16, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Feb 6 (Reuters) - U.S. developers plan to add 54.5 gigawatts (GW) of new electric generating capacity in 2023, with more than half being powered by solar energy, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Monday.

The Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 contains nearly $370 billion for climate change and clean energy initiatives, such as incentives for solar and wind power.

Additions of solar capacity declined by 23% in 2022 compared with 2021 due to supply chain disruptions and other challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the EIA said.

"We expect that some of those delayed 2022 projects will begin operating in 2023, when developers plan to install 29.1 GW of solar power in the United States," it said. That would represent about 53% of the planned new capacity.

Texas and California are expected to have most of the new solar capacity this year, with 7.7 GW and 4.2 GW, respectively. Those two states will account for 41% of the planned additions.

If all projects come online as planned, the new utility-scale solar capacity added in 2023 will be the most in a single year, more than doubling the current record of 13.4 GW in 2021, the EIA added.

Developers also plan to add 9.4 GW of battery storage in 2023 to the existing 8.8 GW of battery storage capacity in the United States and expect to add 6.0 GW of wind capacity, the EIA said.

Reporting by Harshit Verma and Brijesh Patel in Bengaluru; Editing by Paul Simao

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