Biden administration hopes to use solar energy to generate half of electricity supply by 2050

The White House said on Wednesday that solar energy will provide nearly half of the country's electricity by 2050. Solar will rise from 3% of total generation in 2020 to 40% by 2035, and then to 45 percent by 2050, according to the ambitious plan.

To reach that blueprint, a lot of money will have to be spent across industries. Solar installations in the United States reached a new high in 2020, but annual solar capacity additions will need to double through 2025 before quadrupling each year between 2025 and 2030.

Solar's rapid expansion has been fueled by falling prices and supportive policies such as tax incentives over the previous decade.

According to the paper, solar capacity will need to reach 1,600 gigawatts by 2050, according to the US Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. This amount is greater than the current total power usage of residential and commercial structures.

The study on solar power is part of the Biden administration's bigger ambition to establish an emissions-free grid by 2035 and a decarbonized energy system by 2050. Other carbon-free energy sources, most notably wind, would make up the difference in solar power.

In a statement, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said, "The study illuminates the fact that solar, our cheapest and fastest-growing source of clean energy, could produce enough electricity to power all of the homes in the United States by 2035 and employ as many as 1.5 million people in the process."

Extreme weather events fuelled by climate change are wreaking havoc on the US grid, according to the paper.

“This is code red,” President Joe Biden declared Tuesday while visiting Hurricane Ida-affected communities in New York and New Jersey. “Climate change poses an existential threat to our lives and our economy,” says the author. And the danger is real; things aren't going to get any better,” he added. “The nation and the world are in peril.”

The president's words reflect those of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who called the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report a "code red for humanity."

Significant advancements in grid flexibility, including energy storage, as well as transmission expansion, will be required if the United States is to meet its objectives.

Although the Senate enacted an infrastructure package in August that included billions of dollars for renewable energy projects, some key provisions were left out, including the extension of tax credits. This and other ideas, though, might still be included in the House's $3.5 trillion budget resolution passed in August.

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