The American Clean Power Association (ACP) has released its Clean Power Quarterly Market Report Q4 2022, which shows that the U.S. wind, solar, and battery storage sectors installed a total of 9.6GW of utility-scale clean power capacity last quarter.
While Q4 was the best quarter of 2022, it was the lowest fourth quarter for utility-scale clean energy project installations since 2019. A confluence of policy and market headwinds such as supply chain constraints, lengthy delays connecting projects to the grid, unclear trade restrictions, longstanding permitting obstacles and uncertainty over IRA implementation slowed project development in 2022.
Land-based wind ended the year with its strongest quarter, commissioning 4 GW of new projects. Despite this, the 8.5 GW installed in 2022 represents a 37% year-over-year drop. Notably, this was expected, largely due to the declining value of the Production Tax Credit available to wind.
The clean power development pipeline has reached a new high, thanks in part to the market’s reaction to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), with 13% more capacity in development queues since Q4 2021 and 135 GW of clean power projects in late stages of development.
The clean power development pipeline has reached a new high, thanks in part to the market’s reaction to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), with 13% more capacity in development queues since Q4 2021 and 135 GW of clean power projects in late stages of development.
However, in the first full quarter since the IRA went into effect, policy headwinds continue to put these landmark investments at risk and hold back the industry’s potential. The industry ended the year with the lowest fourth quarter since 2019, down 21% from 2021. Annual installations fell below both 2021 and 2020 levels, down 16% and 12% respectively. There is now 227 GW of operating clean power capacity in the United States.
