U.S. Manufacturers Struggle with Renewable Energy Demand

Image courtesy of coniferconifer under Attribution 2.0 Generic Deed, resized to 700 x 391 pixels.

Although the future of renewable energy in the U.S. is a little clouded, it’s safe to say that demand will most likely continue to grow.  Unfortunately, U.S. manufacturers of critical clean energy components like solar panels are not keeping up.  More clean energy was installed in 2024 versus 2023, but the increase was not enough.

The Gap Between U.S. Renewable Energy Manufacturing and Demand

The umbrella of renewable energy encompasses solar, wind, hydro, biomass, and even geothermal.  Here’s a quick primer on each:

• Solar: Accounted for most new renewable energy generating capacity in the U.S. in 2024.
• Wind: Represents the most used clean energy source in the U.S.
• Hydropower: Generated the most renewable energy in the U.S. until 2019 when it was overtaken by wind. That said, hydro still represents a large piece of the pie.
• Biomass: Ranks #4 in the U.S. in terms of clean energy.
• Geothermal: Small source that generates electricity from the heat of the Earth.

That said, for this post I’ll focus on solar capacity because this is the fastest growing type here in the U.S.

In 2024, 50 GW worth of solar panels were erected in the U.S., enough to provide electricity to New York City for 1 year.  But U.S. manufacturers accounted for only about 8% of the total, which makes sense as American prices were almost 300% higher than imported prices!

But now, imports may get costlier due to Trump’s new tariffs.  This may further impede demand fulfillment because imports have been relied upon to plug the shortfall from U.S. manufacturers.

Only time will tell how factors such as U.S. trade policy, U.S. manufacturing capacity, and consumer demand will coalesce to shape the future of the power industry.  My hope is that the impact will be minimal, because faster installation of capacity – whether it’s renewable energy or otherwise – can only help from a utility emergency preparedness perspective!