Governors' Wind Energy Coalition

The U.S. clean energy sector installed nearly 28 gigawatts of new utility-scale wind, solar and energy storage capacity last year, according to a new quarterly market report from the American Clean Power Association released today. While that marks the second-largest year on record for those combined installations, ACP said it is just 45 percent of what’s needed annually to achieve a zero-emissions grid by 2035.

“Although the U.S. has reached this incredible achievement, more needs to be done, at a faster pace, to reach the climate goals and targets our country needs to achieve,” said ACP CEO Heather Zichal in a statement. “We urge Congress to take action to create a clean energy future that will help create more good-paying American jobs and combat the climate crisis.”

The U.S. now has more than 200 GW of clean power capacity, the report found, or enough to power 56 million homes. But there was also a 3 percent decline for clean energy installations in 2021 when compared to the previous year. More than 11.4 GW of projects that were originally expected to come online in 2021 have slipped to this year or 2023 due to issues related to trade policies and a lack of regulatory or policy certainty.

The report lands as progress on the Build Back Better agenda remains stalled in Congress. The bill includes more than $320 billion in clean energy tax incentives that recent analysis from Rhodium Group found would cut 73 percent of power sector emissions from 2005 levels by 2031. Clean energy advocates, including ACP, called on Democratic leaders earlier this month to make “demonstrable progress” on the stalled climate provisions, including the “historic clean energy tax platform.”