ISO-New England, the folks who run the six-state power grid, saw a new record for utility-scale solar last week: On Saturday there was 816 MW of “front of meter” (not rooftop) solar power entering the grid in early afternoon. Although it’s a full 40% than the previous record set a year earlier (cold sunny spring is peak solar time) that’s not a lot of electricity, really – total regional electricity demand was about 12,000 MW at the time. At least we’re moving in the right direction.
Even better, there was an estimated 4,500-5,000 MW of behind-the-meter (rooftop) solar. That’s distributed so it carries very little transmission burden.
This is a reminder that despite the desperate urge by Trump fans to hold onto 19th-century power systems, the energy transition is continuing. the American Clean Power Association reports that 33 gigawatts (33,000 megawatts) of solar alone was turned on in the U.S. in 2024. You can read their report here.
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