From pv magazine USA.
The Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force established in the U.S. by the Democratic presidential nominee and his former rival has published a report calling for the installation of 500 million solar modules in five years.
Although panel sizes and outputs vary widely these days, that nevertheless amounts to hundreds of gigawatts of solar generation capacity and several times the current national appetite for PV.
The report covers renewables, energy storage, energy efficiency and clean transportation as well as progressive policies on criminal justice reform, climate change, health care, closing the racial wealth gap and, explicitly: “undoing the harms of the Trump administration and righting the wrongs.”
On renewables, the task force aims to:
- Dramatically expand solar and wind energy deployment through community-based and utility scale systems. Within five years, states the report, “we will install 500 million solar panels, including eight million solar roofs and community solar energy systems and 60,000 made-in-America onshore and offshore wind turbines”
- Cut red tape, by promoting fast and easy permitting for rooftop solar and energy retrofits
- Launch a battery storage and clean energy transmission line moonshot to super-charge investment in innovation and the deployment of American-made battery technology and clean energy transmission lines
- Improve transmission planning by increasing transparency and fairness in the power markets for clean energy generators. The report also aims to develop and implement a long-term transmission plan to deliver more renewables
- Adopt scaled-up tax credits for renewable energy projects that meet labor standards
The Democratic Party plan could upend four years of fossil-fuel favoritism and acknowledges “climate change is a global emergency.”
The task force stated: “We have no time to waste in taking action to protect Americans’ lives and futures. From Houston, Texas, to Paradise, California; from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Davenport, Iowa, the last four years have seen record-breaking storms, devastating wildfires and historic floods. Urban and rural communities alike have suffered tens of billions of dollars [of] economic losses. Dams have failed catastrophically in Michigan. Neighborhoods have been all but wiped off the map in Florida. Farmers’ crops have been drowned in their fields across the Midwest. Thousands of Americans have died. And President Trump still callously and willfully denies the science that explains why so many are suffering.”
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
Why is not PV magazine informing readers about the widespread growth of industrial/commercial generators that run on fossil fuels in recent years ? They are outstripping our solar and wind growth by a wide margin. They may be right because the anticipated growth in electric vehicles will increase demand for electricity much faster than solar/wind can grow . So they are installing those fossil generators as “back up” or “peakers” while solar/wind are not as much used for peakers if any. Peaker solar/wind mean that every community has to be involved on its own making decisions not to use fossil commercial /industrial generators.. Even liberal leaders seem to be losing focus on that..
Hi Brett,
Thanks for your comment. pv magazine has in the past touched on the lively debate about whether gas-fired peaker back-up generation plants are needed in an otherwise green grid and we do stray into the increasingly strained economics of fossil fuel generation assets but we are primarily a site aimed at the photovoltaic solar power community.
“Why is not PV magazine informing readers about the widespread growth of industrial/commercial generators that run on fossil fuels in recent years ? They are outstripping our solar and wind growth by a wide margin.”
That is flat out false. New Solar PV and Wind installations are now far outstripping fossil installations in the USA. (I believe that is true globally as well, certainly in Europe.) In the recent past, it was NG replacing Coal. In the last few years, it has been Wind and Solar PV replacing Coal. Future plans for electricity generation show much more of the same as the cost of Wind and Solar PV continue to decrease.
Large Battery installations have begun to replace NG Peaker Plants in the USA and battery costs are also dropping fast. A few major breakthroughs have been made.
In a sense, our shut down coal powerplants are already replaced by those thousands and thousands of smaller peaker fossil generators dotting all over the country and the world. it is a wash all along. No wonder we are not turning back climate change at all. We are sooooooo slow with solar and wind growth simply because community solar/wind projects are still being shunned by locals who dont want those near them. They think they can do well with rooftops and those distant utility scale farms out in the boonies.. Community solar/wind is still neglected by most communities. Agricultural, commercial (read Real Estate Investment Trust properties), industrial ( warehouses, small factories, shopping malls, doctor office complexs, hotels, etc) and government (BLM installments, service offices, etc) are still neglecting their climate responsibliities as they still favor fossil generators or big back up generators.. Even homeowners are installing big back up generators that can also be used to sell back electricity to utilities if they wish to. those sleazy carbon denying skeptics who know that clmate change is real but they are more intereseted in making money over the air quality .. If it is not a crime, then vote for Trump again.. makes no difference to me.. no matter how trying you are.. you are still way behind ! like snails as compared to those fossil rabbits who hop around and do installments 100 to 1 for solar/wind.. they are wasting no time making money.. while you liberals take long vacations too often.
This is not only one of the major pieces in solving the climate crisis, it is also important for keeping the USA competitive in producing the most competitive, lowest cost, source of energy going into future.
The global economy of the future will no longer be driven be oil, coal, and NG. It will be driven by Wind, Solar PV, and Battery Storage.