5 Things to Know About Clean Energy and a Reliable Grid

How states are successfully navigating the clean energy transition

5 things to know about clean energy and a reliable grid.

Did you know that Texas and California regularly operate using more than 70 percent renewable energy, and Iowa and South Dakota generated roughly 60 percent of all their electricity in 2023 from wind power? And the electric grids in Hawaii, South Australia, and Denmark are already operating using 100 percent renewable power for days at a time? A new Energy Innovation report details grid reliability in the clean energy transition, highlighting how clean energy has become the backbone for grids around the world.

Despite the fact that clean energy is already earning its mettle in keeping the lights on, grid operators and utility industry representatives are ringing alarm bells about reliability in the clean energy transition.

It’s true, there are a lot of big changes happening: electric grids are undeniably in transition, despite the growing calls to double down on fossil fuels to serve electricity demand from data centers, manufacturing, and cryptocurrency mining, as well as electric vehicles (EVs), industrial equipment, buildings, and appliances. A rapidly changing climate and more extreme weather-related events are placing further strains on all infrastructure, including older electricity systems. Simultaneously, electricity generation is shifting to new sources – primarily wind, solar, and batteries.

All of this change and growth can create uncertainty and inadvertently undermine the tried-and-true facts about grid reliability. So, here are five things to keep in mind to help understand how clean energy can contribute to a reliable grid:

1. Reliability is an attribute of the entire grid – every resource contributes to reliability and their contributions need to be valued accurately.

Grid reliability has three components – resource adequacy, operational reliability, and resilience. For each of these components, every resource on the grid typically contributes. This means that right now things like wind, solar, batteries, gas, and coal all contribute to each component. Similarly, no one type of resource contributes to every aspect of reliability 100 percent of the time. A reliable grid does not need to have a specific amount of any single resource type, but instead, planners must make sure that the portfolio of resources can work together to keep the grid reliable.

2. Clean energy dominates interconnection queues making it one of the fastest ways to support resource adequacy

In 2024, over 90 percent of the new resources added to the grid were solar, wind, and batteries. There were over 2,600 gigawatts of solar, wind, and batteries in the interconnection queues around the country at the end of 2023, meaning that there are large numbers of projects already in various stages of development. And, new research from SEIA shows that clean energy can come online more quickly than other resources. Accelerating these projects can help make sure we have the supply we need to meet demand.

3. Clean energy can provide reliability services as well as, and sometimes even better than traditional fossil fuel-based resources.

Essential reliability services fall into three broad categories: frequency support, voltage support, and balancing and ramping. Clean energy provides all of these services to the grid, and because their inverters can be programmed to respond to grid events nearly instantaneously, they can often offer services even faster than fossil-based resources. A recent GridStatus.io blog shows how battery storage is now providing nearly all of certain essential reliability services like regulation up (a frequency support service) and responsive reserves (a balancing and ramping service) in Texas.

4. Demand-side resources are fast and cheap, and critical to meeting growing loads in the time frames we need.

Meeting all new electricity demand with large, centralized power plants, especially in the timelines laid out by tech companies looking to build AI data centers would be expensive, and near impossible. Instead, flexing demand-side resources can help create the headroom on the grid that’s needed. For example, new research from Duke University shows that over 100 GW of headroom can be found across the grid with only modest data center flexibility. “Virtual” power plants that aggregate demand-side resources are growing quickly and can help save customers money in addition to providing system relief. For example, the Brattle Group found that by 2030, over 200 GW of cost-effective virtual power plant potential will exist in the United States.

5. Clean firm energy may be an important part of a clean energy portfolio, but it should complement cheaper renewables like wind and solar.

Clean firm energy is often heralded as the silver bullet of the clean energy transition, but in reality, most types of clean firm energy, including things like geothermal and nuclear, are still far more expensive than wind, solar, and batteries. As we get closer to a 100 percent clean grid, it is likely that clean firm resources, while still projected to be more expensive than renewables, will play an essential role balancing the system in times of low wind and solar output. But, for now the focus should be on deploying cheap solar, wind, and batteries, and making sure that clean firm technologies are ready for prime time when they are most needed.