Hawaiian Electric inks 2 solar, energy storage projects with AES Hawaii » Published on February 21, 2025 by Dave Kovaleski © Shutterstock A new report from BloombergNEF and the Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE) found that U.S. power generation in 2024 reached its highest volume in two decades. The report, the 2025 Sustainable Energy in America Factbook, said the increase was driven by growth in renewable energy technologies along with stable natural gas generation capacity. Also, rapidly rising expectations of power demand from new industrial sources and transportation, U.S. manufacturing, and a burst of new data centers planned by tech companies have shifted the focus of U.S. energy system planning. “We are on the cusp of an American energy expansion,” BCSE President Lisa Jacobson said. “The United States will need more energy to run homes and businesses and to continue to be a global economic powerhouse. Renewable energy and natural gas are the growth sectors of the energy industry, and, when paired with energy efficiency technologies, will be fundamental in meeting demand growth.” The increasing energy demand has come with a rise in announcements of corporate power purchase agreement (PPA) volumes. They set a new record of 28 gigawatts (GW) in 2024, up 26 percent from 2022. Overall, a total of 183 PPA deals for clean power were signed in 2024, nearly double the amount of PPAs in the prior year. Tech companies lead the way, accounting for 84 percent of overall deal activity, in anticipation of growing AI and data center demand. In addition, solar and energy storage had another record year, weathering supply chain headwinds and higher interest rates. They accounted for over two thirds of the new capacity applying to interconnect to the U.S. grid. These additions helped push renewable sources to 24 percent of U.S. power generation. The contribution of wind, solar, biomass, waste-to-energy, geothermal, and hydropower rose at the fastest pace among all sources of power, rising 10.2 percent. Improving economics of sustainable energy technologies, along with strong support from federal and state governments contributed to the increase. Natural gas remained the largest electricity generation source, representing 42.9 percent of total output in 2024. Demand for U.S. natural gas across all sources rose 1.3 percent on the year to a record of 99.7 billion cubic feet per day. This rise was driven by liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports and increased power consumption. Coal’s contribution to power generation slid to 14.7 percent in 2024 – its lowest ever. It was largely replaced by natural gas and renewables, which jointly contributed 67.1 percent of the generation mix. Also, energy storage experienced substantial growth in 2024, adding a record 11.9 GW of new capacity across grid-scale as well as distributed applications like homes and businesses. This marks a 55 percent jump from the previous year. Further, emerging sectors of the energy economy also grew, including U.S. renewable natural gas (RNG). In addition, sales of electric vehicles (EVs) set a record in 2024, rising 6.5 percent. One in ten new cars registered in 2024 were electric. Tesla remained the largest player, but the U.S. EV market is steadily diversifying from dominance by a single firm. Additionally, global investment in sustainable energy shattered records in 2024, soaring to over $2 trillion. The U.S. deployed $338 billion in financing for energy technologies, including renewable energy, EVs, and power grid investment, up from $303 billion in 2023. Finally, 2024 saw a 0.5 percent increase in greenhouse gas emissions year on year, with transportation remaining the largest emitting sector of the U.S. economy. Industry, the second largest source of emissions, is the fastest growing source of emissions in the U.S. economy. It accounted for 89 percent of the growth in national emissions in 2024. Overall, U.S. emissions in 2024 were 15.8 percent lower than in 2005, while power sector emissions were 41 percent lower than 2005 levels. «