The U.S. electrical grid is getting more gigawatts. But is it enough?

One of the consequences of technological advancement is the need for more and more electrical power. 

And there’s some good news on that front: More than 20 gigawatts of generation capacity were added to the U.S. electrical grid in the first half of this year, according to a new analysis from the Energy Information Administration. That’s about 20% more than was added in the first half of last year.

More than half of that new capacity is from solar, with most of the rest coming from battery storage and wind power.

And the EIA expects another 42 gigawatts to be added in the second half of this year. Is that enough to keep up with the growing demand for electricity?

For much of the last 20 years, demand for electricity in the United States was relatively flat because a lot of things were getting more efficient.

“We have all these new technologies, like electric vehicles, and people using more AI models and data center training,” said Kyri Baker at the University of Colorado Boulder.

All of which use a lot of electricity. As demand has increased, power companies have been adding more capacity to the grid, Baker said.

“It is enough? Uh, not really,” Baker said.

Part of the issue is that even as companies are adding new solar and wind projects to the grid, they’re also taking old power plants, namely coal, offline. But there’s a catch, said Eric Gimon at the think tank Energy Innovation.

“One gigawatt of solar is not the same as one gigawatt of coal or gas capacity,” Gimon said.

That’s because solar panels only generate energy when it’s sunny, and wind turbines only when it’s windy, Gimon said. Still, lots of new projects are being built.

“We’re in a good position right now, but we need to do more to get ready, because we’re going to probably go through several decades of steady need for growth,” Gimon said.

Finding the space to build all these new projects and building more transmission lines are two key pieces of the puzzle.

Another is getting consumers to shift their electricity usage, said Jesse Jenkins at Princeton University.

“For example, I have an electric vehicle that I bought a couple years ago,” Jenkins said. “You know, that’s a big new increase in electricity demand in my household, but my utility offers me an incentive program such that it’s about 60% less expensive if I charge on nights and weekends,” when there’s less demand on the grid. That can also make a big difference, he said. 

And Paul Dabbar at Columbia’s Center on Global Energy Policy said for all the challenges that come with increasing electricity demand, “it’s because things are growing in the country, and that’s generally a positive thing. You’re seeing environmental improvement. You’re seeing economic growth that needs electricity.”

And that is good news for job creation, for productivity and for the economy, he said.