Grid interconnection queues jumped 27%, to 2.6 TW, in 2023, led by solar, storage: DOE lab.

According to a report by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, there was a 27% increase in the number of planned power projects seeking to connect to the U.S. grid in 2023, totaling 2.6 TW. Solar, battery, and wind projects make up 95% of the capacity in the interconnection queues, with over 1 TW of solar and 1 TW of battery storage in the queues. The completion rates for projects in interconnection queues have been relatively low, with only 14% of the capacity from 2000 to 2018 being built. The West, outside of California, has the largest queue at 706 GW. The average time for projects to be built has also increased, with the typical project taking almost five years between requesting an interconnection study and beginning commercial operations in 2023. The researchers noted that variable solar and wind resources contribute a smaller percentage of their nameplate capacity to resource adequacy and peak load compared to dispatchable generation like natural gas, and higher levels of installed solar and wind capacity are needed to achieve the same resource adequacy contributions. [Extracted from the article]