California added record clean energy — can it keep it up?

The Verge

2 days ago

For three years in a row, California has added a record amount of new clean energy capacity. The amount of renewable energy and storage (i.e. batteries) added since 2020 is roughly equivalent to how much electricity the state has used on average on a daily basis — around 25,000 megawatts, according to new data from Governor Gavin Newsom's office and the California Public Utilities Commission shared with The Verge.
California is expecting that growth to continue, although the road ahead is looking increasingly bumpy with the Trump administration trying to make it harder to build new green energy infrastructure in the US.
'We've never added so much capacity to our grid in such a short amount of time.'
'We've never added so much capacity to our grid in such a short amount of time, transforming our power grid to be cleaner and more reliable and resilient than ever before,' Newsom said in a statement emailed to The Verge. His office declined to comment on proposals in President Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' that could stymy renewable energy development if Congress passes it in its current form.
California added nearly 7,000 megawatts of renewable electricity and storage last year. That beats previous records set in 2023 and 2022 of 5,542 and 4,082 megawatts added respectively.
Looking ahead, another 20,000MW in green energy projects are under contract and expected to be complete by 2030. Fast forward even more, and current projections estimate 75,000MW of new capacity by 2040.
Renewable energy has taken off as more affordable alternatives for generating electricity than fossil fuels. California now generates more than 50 percent of its electricity from renewables. That's more than the US as a whole, which gets about 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources.
But oil production and refining is still a big industry for California, and other states have even greener power grids. South Dakota, for example, generates more than three-quarters of its electricity from renewables thanks to abundant wind resources. You can see in the graph below that much of California's growing clean energy capacity comes from solar and batteries.
Wind and solar produced more electricity than coal for the first time in the US last year thanks in large part to falling costs and policies meant to fight climate change by transitioning to renewable energy.
In 2022, the US passed the single largest investment in climate and clean energy to date, named the Inflation Reduction Act. It included roughly $369 billion in incentives for climate action, funding that the Trump administration is now attempting to claw back. Aside from trying to cancel federal funding, Trump's erratic tariff regime is also raising costs for renewable energy projects. Companies have already canceled or delayed more than $14 billion in investments in clean energy and vehicle factories since January, according to a report last week.
To heighten the stakes, House Republicans passed a version of the 'big, beautiful' spending bill in May that would slash Biden-era tax credits for renewable energy projects. Now the Senate is wrangling with the bill, which Republicans reportedly hope to pass before the July 4th holiday. Energy incentives have been a hot-button topic — alongside proposed Medicaid cuts and other dicey proposals within the sweeping bill — considering Republican districts stood to benefit the most from projects benefiting from those tax credits.
Texas — the fastest growing solar market in the US — could lose 34,100 jobs in that industry by 2030 if the House version of the bill were to become law. California could lose even more, 35,700, according to an analysis published yesterday by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).