With the recent US infrastructure bill, the IPCC report, and Department of Energy report, it is a critical time for planning the future of solar and renewable energy. With the electricity sector currently accounting for a significant amount of global emissions and the continued urgency of climate action, the need for rapidly expanding solar energy deployment remains of utmost importance. 

In the US, the recent Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act has significant implications for the renewable energy industry in the United States. This $1.2 trillion dollar bill has $550 billion in new spending. The bill includes a number of provisions to support renewable energy, grid resiliency, and electric vehicle infrastructure. The infrastructure package sets the stage for the current administration's continued action on climate and energy. The bill allocates $7.5 billion for national electric vehicle charging infrastructure, $73 billion in clean energy transmission upgrades, $3 billion for battery storage materials processing, and $3 billion for battery manufacturing and recycling grants. It also includes provisions to address grid weatherization and smart grid research. The bill will help to provide the foundation for building critical infrastructure needed to support a rapidly transforming grid soon to be powered largely by renewables. By 2050, solar and wind combined are projected to make up 90% of the US’s electricity production. Thus, beyond these initial investments significantly more intensive policy and investment is needed to increase and accelerate the essential adoption of solar energy in the United States. 

The Department of Energy recently released the Solar Futures Study report, calling for an increase in national solar energy from the current 4% of national electricity usage to 45% by 2050. This ambitious, important, and feasible goal will require doubling the installed capacity of solar energy annually over the next few years. Between now and 2025, 30 GW of solar deployment will be needed each year and 60 GW annually between 2025 and 2030. This solar expansion will also require doubling the growth of high-voltage transmission as well as largely scaling up energy storage. This rapid transformation of our energy systems is essential to address climate change.  Furthermore, according to the report, the expansion of the solar industry in the US will also create up to 1.5 million new solar jobs and roughly 3 millions in clean energy overall. In order to effectively meet these solar energy goals, the solar industry must be supported by even stronger government policy, funding sources, and financial structures to accelerate growth at this scale. 

A significant increase in detailed federal policy and planning are needed for the goals called for by the Solar Futures Study to be successfully met and for the infrastructure bill to support these goals. For example, the current investment of $73 billion in transmission expansion is a great start but a projected total of $360 billion dollars in transmission will be needed to achieve 60% expansion in transmission by 2030. To move from the current 4% of electricity generated by solar energy, solar permitting must be standardized nationally to maximize efficiency with technology such as the NREL’s recently introduced SolarAPP+. Standardizing, simplifying, and shortening solar permit, incentive, interconnection, and financing applications will facilitate accelerated solar development. Reducing barriers to solar adoptions through increased solar energy education and financing options for solar customers. Prioritizing industry innovation across the board remains critical. Innovation is needed not only in panel, storage, & equipment efficiency, but significantly in solar permitting, financing, interconnection, and ownership models. If solar permitting processes remain regionally disparate, excessively long, and unnecessarily complex, 45% of electricity production from solar energy will not be easily achieved.

While the infrastructure bill funding and Solar Futures Study report goals are an important step in the right direction, immense work is needed to support the incredibly rapid technological transformation to safeguard our energy and planetary future. This extraordinarily high level of energy system disruption requires dramatically increased clean energy innovation, investment, policy, and planning. The deployment of solar must be spurred on, supported, and incentivised by strong and detailed policy to reduce the existing costs and barriers to solar development. The grid cannot achieve decarbonization without energy policy requiring the advancement of solar and other clean energy technologies, including wind, battery storage, and expanded transmission. The rapid transformation of the energy industry is undeniably worthwhile with the emissions reductions, improved air quality, health benefits, and cost savings greatly outweighing the costs and challenges of the technological transition.