The backlog of new clean energy onto the power grid jumped significantly last year, leaving the electricity system with nearly 2,600 gigawatts of energy and storage capacity trying to connect, according to a report released Wednesday by the Energy Department’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The resources waiting to connect could more than double the grid’s current capacity, according to the report. Many clean energy advocates and grid experts see a need for a broader build-out of grid infrastructure to accommodate a new wave of resources.
The vast majority of the resources waiting to connect to the power system are wind, solar and storage capacity — much of it spurred by incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act. But the inability of those resources to actually start providing power to the wider grid system highlights the limitations of the climate law.
“The IRA supercharged the already-vigorous market for clean energy and storage development,” said Nick Manderlink, a research assistant at Berkeley Lab and co-author of the new report. “But while the IRA improved economic certainty for projects, other uncertainties — like grid interconnection and permitting — remain challenging.”
