Opportunities and Barriers to the Widespread Deployment of Renewable Energy in the U.S.

Wind and solar power currently account for about 11% and 5% of total US electricity generation, respectively, but those rates are poised to surge in coming years. The cost of generating power from wind and solar has declined precipitously in recent years, to the point that those resources are now the cheapest form of generating power in many regions across the U.S. Indeed, recently signed 20-year contracts for wind and solar power are typically priced lower than the expected cost of burning fuel in existing natural gas plants. These cost declines, coupled with policy and market drivers such as the Inflation Reduction Act, state- and utility-level decarbonization targets, and corporate procurement of renewables, have driven a surge in demand for clean power from wind, solar, and batteries. In fact, as of the end of 2021, there was more proposed clean energy capacity applying for transmission grid interconnection across the US than the generating capacity of the entire existing US power plant fleet. Yet, despite this unprecedented opportunity to decarbonize our electric sector, many bottlenecks and barriers are slowing the energy transition. Our aging and inadequate transmission infrastructure is too congested and constrained to transmit all this new power, and does not reach to the geographic regions where wind and solar is best suited. Grid operators are overwhelmed by the number of new generator requests, and current interconnection procedures have led to multi-year delays and backlogs for wind, solar, and battery plants seeking approval to connect. Finally, wind and solar plants increasingly face public opposition due to local concerns around aesthetic, economic, and other concerns. Today, many of the foremost challenges to the US energy transition are no longer technical or economic in nature, but are instead procedural, institutional, and social.