Just yesterday, I wrote about T1 Energy CEO Dan Barcelo contending that the US needs serious solar permitting reform. Now we have another warning about how much this is holding back solar power growth in the state.
In the latest US Solar Market Insight report, SEIA and Wood Mackenzie pointed out that a federal permitting slowdown has delayed a large number of solar projects, and if that continues, solar growth in the coming years will stagnate.
Image from SEIA
“In a world of fluctuating fuel prices, energy buyers have made it clear that they want the security, low cost and speed of solar and storage, which commanded a massive 91% of all new capacity built in Q1,” interim president and CEO of SEIA Darren Van’t Hof said. “Yet, as power demand skyrockets, political and regulatory attacks are slowing down the exact resources we rely on. Impeding the only sector that is actively building new power is a reckless gamble that will only drive electricity bills higher. The stakes are simply too high for Washington’s permitting gridlock to continue.”
Indeed. It would be crazy, if it wasn’t so predictable and easily explained. Americans want cheap electricity, and they want clean electricity, but the cheapest and cleanest electricity on the planet, solar electricity, is being slowed and blocked in the United States by an administration that favors fossil fuels and cronyism above all else.
