Dominant solar grabs 87% of US January grid-scale power capacity installations: FERC

Grid-scale solar accounted for a dominant 87.4% of 2.9GW of power capacity installed by the US in January, underscoring its emergence as the pacesetter among renewable energy technologies, according to latest numbers from Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

Wind additions totaled 320MW, natural gas 44MW, and five megawatts of capacity from other sources.

Most of the solar capacity came online in Florida and Texas, along with 300MW in New Mexico, 287MW in Ohio, 100MW in Wisconsin, and small projects in five other states.

Solar continues to benefit from strong corporate and utility demand, fewer supply chain bottlenecks for cells and modules, most of which are Chinese branded and imported from Southeast Asia, and greater access to lucrative federal tax credits.

Project developers have been stockpiling product from that region in anticipation President Joe Biden’s administration will lift a two-year tariff moratorium on 6 June, which he imposed to give the industry here more time to develop domestic supply capacity.

The administration has found that some leading Chinese suppliers are avoiding US tariffs by shipping cells and modules through certain Southeast Asian nations, potentially exposing them to retroactive levies when the ban ends.

The 2022 US climate law enabled grid-scale solar to qualify for production tax credits (PTCs), which can be worth as much as $33/MWh for power sent to the grid over the first decade of project operation.

Previously, large solar was eligible only for the investment tax credit (ITC) worth an up-front 30% of capital investment that does not vary by system performance. If certain criteria are met, ITC value can reach 50%. If eligible, the project must claim the credit in the tax year of installation.

Generally, large-scale PV projects will receive more value if they opt for the PTC in sunny locations such as Florida and Texas.