Developers connected 4,131 MW of utility scale solar power capacity to US electric grids in the third quarter of 2023, a 107% increase from the year-ago period and a sign of a resurgence of an industry battered by inflation and supply chain constraints.
The amount of solar power energized in the third quarter is a recent quarterly record and a nearly 20% jump from the capacity added during the prior three-month period, S&P Global Market Intelligence data show.
So far in 2023 developers have connected 10,337 MW of solar power capacity to US electric grids, an increase of 36% from the 7,589 MW energized in the first three quarters of 2022. As of August, US utility-scale solar capacity totaled approximately 80 GW, according to the US Energy Information Administration, which in November predicted that solar energy output will surpass that of hydroelectric power in 2024.
In the third quarter, developers energized 500-MW projects to grids in Texas and Nevada. Enel SpA subsidiary Enel Green Power North America Inc. powered its Roseland Solar Project in Falls County, Texas, in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas Inc., also the site of a proposed 59-MW/89-MWh battery energy storage system. And NextEra Energy Inc. energized its Yellow Pine Solar in Clark County, Nev., at the site of the planned 65-MW Yellow Pine Battery Storage Project. A portion of its output is under contract to community choice aggregators in California. None of the 11 projects commissioned in the quarter were under 100 MW in capacity.
Federal incentives, including support from investment tax credits and US Energy Department financing, are creating a scramble among developers to secure positions in backed-up interconnection queues. As of the end of the quarter, the five-year pipeline for new solar energy projects was nearly 204 GW. Roughly half of that capacity is in the early development phase, the data show.
About 10.3 GW of projects are in advanced development; 37.7 GW are under construction; and 54.5 GW of the capacity represents announced projects.
Market Intelligence considers a project to be under construction when building activity has begun; site preparation does not qualify. Projects in advanced development must meet two of five criteria: financing is in place; power purchase agreements are signed; equipment is secured; required permits are approved; or a contractor has signed onto the project. A project is in early development after permitting begins. An announced project must have a listing in an interconnection queue with an accompanying public announcement or permitting action.
Developers in the third quarter announced six new proposals for solar farms with a combined 241 MW of capacity and totaling an estimated $360.8 million in construction costs. That is far less than the 1,240 MW of new projects announced in the second quarter.
Alpin Sun, a German company with operations in Texas, where it has developed 4 GW of solar power capacity, proposed the largest project of the quarter, the 150-MW Matador Solar Project in Mahoning County, Ohio. Blackstone Inc. subsidiary Aypa Power LLC proposed the second-largest project, the 47-MW Summit Ridge Solar Project, located near a proposed 47-MW battery storage facility and a proposed 194-MW wind farm in Wasco County, Ore. FirstEnergy Corp. proposed the other four solar projects in the quarter, installations of less than 20 MW each in West Virginia, totaling 44 MW of capacity.
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