How Biden’s Proposed Tenfold Increase in Solar Power will Impact Electric Utilities

President Biden wants to take action on climate change by increasing solar power by a whopping 1,000%.  The reason for the focus on solar power is because a Sept. 2021 Energy Dept. report showed that solar could generate nearly half of the U.S. power supply in just 30 years from now.

Is the Solar Power Initiative Feasible?

The Energy Dept. report suggests that decarbonization should focus on shifting to low-carbon and/or carbon-free energy sources, as well as the large-scale electrification of activities that previously relied on fossil fuels.  Doing these things, according to the report, would require a total of 1,600 gigawatts of solar power, which would be able to accommodate an estimated 45% of expected demand in 2050.  That 1,600 number is a 1,450% increase from the 103 GW of solar generated today.

Getting that many gigs from solar would require the installation of about 5 billion solar panels.  Not exactly a small amount.  You may be wondering why there is such an emphasis on solar to the exclusion of other renewable energy sources. The answer is because most of the U.S. has a lot of sunshine, whereas other clean sources like hydro and wind are not evenly distributed across the country.

That said, how feasible is generating 45% of electricity in the U.S. from solar in just 30 years?  Well, according to an expert, it would be technically possible but not easy for a variety of reasons.  The undertaking would be huge, especially when you consider that it would require 400 more GW of electricity than is generated today from all sources.

Now granted, the report assumes up to 20% of new installations will be on homes and businesses, but that still leaves nearly 1,300 GW that would have to come by building solar plants and would require an estimated 11 million acres of land to do so (although this is still only 0.5% of total U.S. land mass).

Additionally, any dramatic increase in clean energy generation will require electric utilities to increase transmission levels, add energy storage capacity, and implement load-shifting incentives to customers during times when the weather does not cooperate.  It will also require better integration between regional power grids, something they are not currently configured to do.

All told, Biden’s solar power plan seems pretty unrealistic to me.