Utility-scale solar photovoltaic power plants are now generating about twice as much electricity as they did just one year ago in the US.
12,303 GWh were sent to the U.S. grid by utility-scale solar in 2014 through the month of September. For the same period in 2013, that number was 6,048 GWh. The larger figure is only about 0.4 percent of the total amount of America’s electricity, though about 1.5 million US homes could be powered with the 12,303 GWh.
1.5 million homes might not sound like much, but let’s say each home has two people living in it, on average. Then that would be solar power for three million people. The population of Rhode Island is only about one million. Delaware is less than one million, and Vermont is a little over 600,000.
If three American states were entirely powered by utility-scale solar, do you think no one would know about it? Of course, not all of the 1.5 million homes are located in those three states. They are all over the nation, and especially in California, but the point is still clear: There is enough electricity generated by utility-scale solar to power them.
Did you hear that the amount of electricity produced by utility-scale solar had doubled in one year? Is the national mainstream media covering these achievements by the solar power industry?
Solar power costs have dropped dramatically in recent times, so it doesn’t make any sense to ignore this clean form of energy. (Some utility customers have even demanded it.)
