Red States Led the Country in Solar and Wind Production in 2022: Report

Solar panels and wind turbines. (Mike Mareen/Adobe Stock)

A new report finds that national renewable energy capacity rose last year, with wind and solar up 16 percent compared to 2021.

Red states are leading the United States in both wind and solar power, according to the report by Climate Central, a nonprofit science communication organization. Texas, in particular, is a leader in both solar and wind power, adding more solar and wind capacity than any other state.

“Texas is rich in wind speed and rich in sun,” said Irfan Khan, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Texas A&M, as reported by The Guardian. “While there is a lot of initial investment, after the wind turbines are erected, the cost of wind is cheaper.”

Increasing the number of transmission lines to bring power from rural solar and wind farms to cities is the key to ramping up solar and wind capacity, experts say.

“Currently, the grid cannot handle all the renewable energy that already exists in Texas, and if we do not have transmission lines to support the renewable energy that feeds to the grid, then it’s useless,” Khan told the outlet.

More than 90 percent of the 8,100 energy projects waiting on approval to be connected to the grid as of the end of 2020 were for solar, wind, and battery storage.

Top list of solar energy producers:

1. California generated 58,664,084 megawatt-hours (MWh).
2. Texas generated 22,863,146 MWh.
3. Florida generated 13,595,456 MWh.
4. North Carolina generated 11,532,539 MWh.
5. Arizona generated 10,408,801 MWh.

Top list of wind energy producers:

1. Texas generated 129,578,478 MWh.
2. Iowa generated 48,442,412 MWh.
3. Oklahoma generated 45,757,509 MWh.
4. Kansas generated 34,239,591 MWh.
5. Illinois generated 23,819,521 MWh.

The nation’s installed solar and wind capacity increased to more than 238 gigawatts (GW) in 2022, up nearly 13 GW from 2021. The combined amount of electricity generated by wind and solar jumped from 588,471 gigawatt-hours (GWh) in 2021 to 683,130 GWh in 2022. That’s enough electricity to power 64 million average American households.

Wind power produced around 499,846 GWh, about three-quarters of electricity output, and solar power produced around 183,284 GWh, or a quarter of electricity output in 2022.

The report comes as the Biden administration approves billions of dollars for renewable energy projects through last year’s Inflation Reduction Act. The administration has committed the nation to reaching net-zero emissions by midcentury.

The study confirms that possibility, and concludes that the country’s ability to produce electricity from sunlight and wind can grow fast enough to support net-zero carbon emissions targets in the United States by 2050.