While the scale of clean energy’s growth in 2024 was remarkable, the fact that clean capacity grew isn't all that surprising.
What was shocking to me, however, was just how much of the new power capacity that came online in 2024 was clean.
95% of new capacity was carbon-free.
In 2024, the star of the clean energy show was without a doubt solar energy.
The U.S. added 32.1 GW of new utility-scale solar capacity in 2024. Annual solar capacity additions rose by 65% in 2024 compared to 2023 when the country added 19.5 GW.
Take Buncombe County, where Asheville is located, for example.
The county has 137,123 housing units.
But just 941 of those units—less than 0.7%—have flood insurance through the NFIP, the federal insurance program that issues 97% of the country’s flood insurance plans.
A recent report found that 16,306 properties located in Buncombe County were at risk of flooding in a 1-in-100 year storm.