Solar is Growing Faster Than Any Electricity Source

(TheConservativeTimes.org) – Solar is one of the most popular energy sources in the United States right now as power demand surges. Solar has grown faster than any other electricity source that is available.

There has been a lot of criticism regarding the energy transition away from fossil fuels as leaders in the gas and oil industry do not support the idea. Some have said that the market for renewables isn’t big enough despite plenty of investments and that these energy sources face reliability issues.

According to the Department of Energy, solar energy is a small share of energy generation at just under four percent; in comparison, natural gas holds over forty percent share of electricity generation. Clean energy leaders in the industry have said that it’s reaching a turning point as larger tech firms like Amazon and Microsoft are looking to use clean energy to power data centers.

Andrés Gluski, CEO of AES Corporation, said, “They are cheaper, they are clean and quite frankly easier to site, so the future is going to be renewable energy.”

Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Google as a combined force have made up forty percent of the demand for larger-scale solar projects. The demand for renewable energy is expected to rise as artificial intelligence becomes a prominent feature. According to UBS, artificial intelligence uses ten times more electricity than a regular Google search.

Joseph Rand, energy policy researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said, “We’re seeing this kind of surge in demand for clean power.” He continued, “We’ve seen the economics of wind and solar, for example, become very competitive and very attractive to the point where in many parts of the U.S., those are the cheapest forms that can generate a unit of electricity.”