600 million people in Africa lack electricity access

August 17, 2025

Over 40% of Africa’s population, roughly 600 million people on the continent, have no connection to electricity. Access to electricity can facilitate education and economic growth through better technologies and connectivity. It is important for health and safety by powering devices like water pumps and purifiers, clean cooking appliances, and safe lighting. In an effort to expand electricity access, the World Bank and the African Development Bank are spearheading Mission 300, a collaboration between governments and the private sector to get 300 million more people in Africa connected to power by 2030. Data source: World Bank.

Fewer wildfires, bigger burns

August 10, 2025

Over the past forty years, the number of wildfires in the U.S. has declined slightly, while the number of acres burned each year has risen. From 1985 to 1995, fires burned an average of 3.0 million acres per year. From 2012 to 2022, that average jumped to 7.2 million acres per year. Warmer temperatures have dried vegetation leading to longer fire seasons and larger burns. The strength of fires has increased despite additional suppression efforts: In the 1990s, the federal government spent $453 million per year on firefighting efforts. In the 2010s that spending rose to an average of $1.91 billion per year, a 2.5x increase (inflation adjusted). Data source: nifc.gov.

DOE cancels $4.9 billion loan for transmission line

August 3, 2025

On July 23, the Department of Energy terminated a $4.9 billion conditional commitment to Invenergy's Grain Belt Express transmission line. The planned 804-mile, direct current line is designed to carry wind energy from Kansas to load centers in the East. Interregional transmission lines like the Grain Belt Express can help the country interconnect more clean resources and meet rising electricity demand. The loan cancellation comes after politicians including Missouri Senator Josh Hawley pushed back against the project, claiming the funding was rushed out the door by the Biden administration. Source: Invenergy.

PJM capacity auction hits price cap

July 27, 2025

To ensure its system has adequate resources to meet demand in future years, a grid operator typically administers a competitive capacity market. Last year, capacity prices in PJM spiked from $28.92/MW-day to $269.92/MW-day. The 9x increase came from a combination of rising data center load growth, generator retirements, and changes to PJM’s capacity accreditation methods. In part responding to a complaint by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, PJM and FERC approved a two year “price collar” in the capacity market. This year, prices rose again and hit the price cap at $329.17. The price collar reduces volatility and protects consumers from cost spikes. However, it also distorts market signals in a region where supply is already falling behind rising demand. Source: PJM.

Demand response helps Mid-Atlantic grid weather heatwave

July 20, 2025

During the heatwave in June, the Mid-Atlantic power grid hit its third highest peak demand of all time. To keep electricity flowing to 67 million people, the grid operator called on contracted demand response resources. By participating in demand response, industrial, commercial, and residential customers receive payments for reducing their consumption during peak hours. Economic demand response occurs when electricity prices cross thresholds agreed upon with customers. Load management demand response occurs when the grid operator calls on contracted resources during an emergency. In the evening of June 24, demand response contributed 4.3 gigawatts of power to the system, roughly equal to adding four nuclear reactors. Data Source: PJM.

Federal budget law cuts short support for wind, solar, and EVs

July 13, 2025

On July 4, President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law, bringing an earlier end to tax credits for wind, solar, and EVs. In 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act expanded federal support for advanced energy technologies, including a $7,500 credit for electric vehicles and larger investment and production tax credits for renewables. The new Act ends the EV credit at the end of September 2025, seven years before the previous deadline. Additionally, for new wind and solar plants to qualify for the investment tax credit or production tax credit, their construction must begin before July 4, 2026, or they must enter into service before the end of 2027. The new Act did spare some clean energy technologies, leaving support for energy storage and clean baseload power (including geothermal and nuclear) unchanged from the existing timeline. Source: L&W.

Electricity rates by state

July 6, 2025

In March 2025, the average residential rate for electricity across the nation was 17.11 cents per kilowatt-hour. However, households in different regions paid different rates: Idaho residents paid an average of 11.56 cents/kWh, while those in Connecticut paid 32.55 cents/kWh—nearly three times as much. The retail rate reflects the cost of generation, transmission, and distribution, each of which is impacted by different factors. For example, California’s wildfire mitigation and grid hardening efforts raise the costs of transmission and distribution. In states with higher wages, taxes, or clean energy standards, utilities may charge higher rates to cover related costs as well. Data source: EIA.

Tech’s nuclear power plays

June 29, 2025

Tech giants have a growing hunger for electricity to power their AI and cloud computing data centers. At the same time, Google, Microsoft, and Meta aim to achieve net zero emissions by 2030. To secure one source of continuous, carbon-free power, they have made large deals with nuclear energy companies. With multi-decade agreements, tech companies have revitalized economically troubled plants such as Three Mile Island. They have also invested billions of dollars into small modular reactors (SMRs), a new generation of fission reactors with the potential to be cheaper and easier to build. Most SMRs however are not expected to come online for another decade. If executed, these eight projects above will total to over 15,000 MW, enough power for roughly 12 million homes yet only a fraction of forecasted data center demand in the coming decades. Data sources: Company press releases.

Global surface temperature

June 22, 2025

The past ten years have been the ten hottest years on record. In 2024, the average global surface temperature was 2.79 °F (1.55 °C) above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900). Over the past decade, greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide have reached concentrations in the atmosphere unmatched in hundreds of thousands of years, trapping in heat. Data source: 2 Degrees Institute. (Temperatures before 1880 are estimated using ice cores and ocean sediments.)

Swapping out coal for natural gas

June 15, 2025

In 2004, the U.S. generated 53% of its electricity from coal-fired power plants and 19% from natural gas plants. In 2024, coal’s share of production has dropped to 15% while the share from natural gas has risen to 43%. Since the start of the “shale revolution” in the early 2000s, natural gas has fallen in price and forced coal plants to close largely for economic reasons. In addition to using cheaper fuel, natural gas plants are more flexible and emit less CO2 than coal plants. Lower gas prices have limited the growth of nuclear energy as well and forced some reactors to close. Of any technology, wind and solar have grown the most over the past two decades, rising in their share of electricity production from less than 1% to over 17%. Data source: EIA.

Solar growth and curtailment in the Golden State

June 8, 2025

California continues to rapidly grow its utility-scale solar capacity. Total solar generation in the state increased by 47% from 2021 to 2024. Sometimes during the day, solar production exceeds the amount that the current transmission system can support, requiring the grid operator to shut off some of the supply. Most of this curtailment occurs during the spring, when there is ample sun but lower demand due to moderate temperatures. In March 2025, for example, the California ISO shut off 18% of total solar generation for the month. To reduce curtailment, California is expanding its transmission infrastructure and promoting additional flexible resources such as batteries. Data source: CAISO via Grid Status.

Electric vehicle adoption around the world

June 1, 2025

Global electric vehicle sales continue to grow, with more than one EV for every five cars sold in 2024. Last year, EVs accounted for 10% of car sales in the United States, 22% in Europe, and 48% in China. Norway leads the world in EV adoption, with 89% of all new cars being fully battery powered. The Scandinavian country has significant government incentives for EVs and has built an extensive charging network. Domestically, Norway is moving towards its climate goals, with an electricity grid powered by 97% renewables. However, oil and gas account for two-thirds of the country’s exports. Data source: IEA.

Mapping battery storage buildout

May 25, 2025

Over the past five years, utility-scale lithium-ion battery capacity in the U.S. has grown from 1.0 GW in January 2020 to 28.5 GW in March 2025. By the end of 2025, an additional 18.2 GW is planned to come online, as shown in orange. California leads the charge with 12.1 GW installed, followed by Texas with 7.9 GW and Arizona with 2.5 GW. Together, these three states account for 79% of the nation's battery capacity. Each battery can supply its maximum power for a set duration, which typically falls between 1 and 4 hours. Data source: EIA.

A new era of electricity demand growth

May 18, 2025

Grid operators across the country expect an increase in annual peak demand, the highest electricity load over any hour in a given year, for the first time in two decades. The electrification of industries, homes, and transportation as well as new data centers are driving up forecasts of demand. Texas, with a growing economy and population, expects peak load to rise from 85 GW in 2024 to 154 GW in 2035, an 80% increase. In the Mid-Atlantic region, PJM, the operator of the nation's largest grid, anticipates a 38% rise in peak power demand this decade, from 151 GW to 209 GW. The New England system operator expects winter peak demand in the region to grow from 20 GW to 28 GW by 2035, largely due to the electrification of heating and transportation. Data sources: ERCOT, PJM, and ISO-NE.

E.U. continues to cut flows of Russian gas

May 11, 2025

In the three years since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, countries in the European Union have reduced their combined imports of Russian natural gas by 75%. The decrease has been partially offset by a tripling in U.S. liquefied natural gas imports since the start of 2022. Overall gas imports to Europe have fallen 19% in this three-year period. This decline is in part due to a reduction in consumption by industries in response to record high prices as well as a continued shift to renewables and energy efficiency. On May 5, 2025, the European Commission shared plans to stop all imports of Russian gas by the end of 2027. Data source: Bruegel.

California's changing resource mix

May 4, 2025

Snapshots of California's generation mix on May 1, 2020 and May 1, 2025. Over the past five years, solar has expanded its share, while electricity imports from other western states have declined. Batteries, shown in purple, have become a significant part of the mix in recent years. At 8 pm on May 1, 2025, for example, batteries were supplying 34% of the state's electricity. Data source: California ISO via Grid Status.