US’s Ambitious Plan to Produce 45 Percent of its Electricity Through Solar Power

It is no news that the former president of the US, Donald Trump, was a climate change denier. Fortunately, the current administration couldn’t disagree more. The Biden administration has unveiled an ambitious plan for the solar industry to produce 45 percent of its electricity by the year 2050 in order to reduce the country’s contribution to the climate crisis.

The Department of Energy (DOE) revealed the plan on how to achieve this ambitious goal, which would involve escalating the production of solar panels and advancing energy infrastructure across the nation. This blueprint will increase the country’s dependence on solar power from 3 percent to over 10 times that amount within the next three decades.

While touting clean energy as a way forward for America, President Joe Biden acknowledged the need to reduce the country’s carbon emissions and to combat the global climate crisis that has wreaked havoc this year across parts of the US. He also noted that by investing in the solar industry, thousands of much-needed jobs will be generated as well.

Image: Erin Schaff/The New York Times

While visiting the neighborhoods in New York and New Jersey destroyed by Hurricane Ida, Biden noted the impact of climate change and said;

We’re all in this. I think what people are seeing across this country, from the wildfires in California and the west … all the way down to Louisiana … people are beginning to realize, and this is much, much bigger than anyone was willing to believe.

According to the Solar Futures study, the US must double its capacity per year between 2021 and 2030 to achieve its goal of 40 percent solar power in the next 15 years.

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said that solar power is the country’s “cheapest and fastest-growing source of clean energy,” which could generate enough power to operate all American households by 2035 while offering employment to nearly 1.5 million people.

The country installed a record amount of solar – 15 gigawatts – to total 76 GW in 2020, contributing 3 percent of the present electricity supply.

The ambitious solar blueprint has been welcomed by environmental activists, who have said that a massive solar target can help to address the climate emergency. However, careful consideration of scale and design is a must before the administration moves forward with its plans.

The fruition of this mega plan will be a spectacle and inspiration for the entire world.

Via: Independent