The American Energy Network added more solar power in 2024 more than any other source in one year more than two decades, according to a new report issued on Tuesday.
The data was released a day after the new US Energy Minister, Chris Wright, criticized solar power and wind energy on two fronts. On Monday, at the beginning of Ceraweek by S& P Global, an annual energy conference in Houston, said that they could not meet the growing electricity needs in the world and that their use was increasing energy costs.
The report, which was produced by the Solar Energy Industries Association, Wood McKenzi, a research company, said that about 50 gigawatts of new solar energy generation were added last year more than any other source of electricity.
Mr. Wright and President Trump strongly criticized the renewable energy, which was defended by former President Joseph R. Biden Junior as a way to treat climate change. Energy Minister, Mr. Trump and Republicans in Congress have pledged to retract many policies of Mr. Biden Climate and Energy.
“Besides the problems of the scale and the clear cost, there is no simply material for wind, solar energy and batteries that can replace the countless uses,” said Mr. Wright, who was the CEO of Oil and Gas Production.
However, it seems that solar energy storage systems and batteries have great momentum and may not be easily frustrated. The US Energy Information Administration, which is part of the Mr. Wright section, said last month that it expects solar energy and batteries to continue New capacity facilities We have electric networks this year.
Clean energy supporters celebrated the teacher for solar energy, as the world moves to increase electricity production to meet the needs of energy -stained data centers to support the growth of artificial intelligence.
“There is a brutal agreement that in order to do so, we must have enough electricity, and there are facts showing that the fastest way to do this and the cheapest way to do this is by spreading solar energy and storage,” said Abil Ross Hopper, President and CEO of the solar Association in an interview at Cereweek.
In a discussion episode, one of the country’s largest facilities has acknowledged the ability of solar energy to provide new electricity generation quickly and secondly.
John Ketchum, President and CEO of Nextera Energy, the largest American renewable energy producer and the parent company of Florida Power & Light, a company for energy stations that burn natural gas.
But Mr. Wright said that the increasing use of solar and wind energy was driving the cost of electricity, which has increased steadily over the past two years. Some of this increase was the result of the sharp jump in the costs of oil and natural gas after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and promotions to networks that experts say the facilities have been affected for many years.
Mr. Wright said: “Wind and solar energy, the pillars of the last administration and many of the world today, provide approximately 3 percent of the world’s primary energy,” said Mr. Wright. “Everywhere, winds and solar energy have increased significantly, prices on the network rose and the stability of the network decreased.”
Electricity rates throughout the country reached its highest levels in 2024, when it increased by 4 percent at the national level to $ 162.60 per month in December compared to 1000 kilowatts of an hour of use, an increase of $ 156.90 in the previous year, according to what it said. The latest federal data.
Even with high prices, the demand for electricity is expected to increase significantly. Mr. Ketchum expected an increase of 55 percent in the demand for electricity over the next twenty years, which is approximately the fifth of that related to the growth of data centers, as industrial and industrial growth represents a lot of comfort.
Looking at expectations to increase the demand for electricity, energy experts said that governments should focus on the ability to withstand costs, reliability and local and global energy integrity while not losing concerns about climate change.
“There will be pitfalls on the road,” said Ernest Moniz, who was the Obama administration’s energy minister, in a panel discussion in Ceraweek. “We move to this low -carbon future.”