Federal investment push

In a bifurcated renewable landscape, the solar market brightened in 2023, while wind faced sweeping challenges. The latter bore the brunt of project inputs, labor and capital cost pressures, interconnection and permitting delays, and transmission limitations. Meanwhile, supply chain constraints started easing as historic clean energy and climate laws took effect.

In the United States, utility-scale solar capacity additions outpaced additions from other generation sources between January and August 2023—reaching almost 9 gigawatts (GW), up 36% for the same period in 2022—while small-scale solar generation grew by 20%.1 Only 2.8 GW of wind capacity came online during the same period, down 57% from last year, resulting in renewables accounting for just over half of capacity added versus two-thirds last year.2 However, renewable energy’s share of US electricity generation remained level at 22%.3 By the end of 2023, the US Energy Information Administration expects utility-scale solar installations to more than double compared to 2022, to a record-breaking 24 GW, and wind capacity to rise by 8 GW.