The US invested a record of $ 338 billion in the energy transition last year, according to a new report, but it was not enough to reduce the overall emissions of the carbon site.
The sun took the lead, adding 49 gigavas with new electrical generating capacity in 2024, much more than any other technology. The sun and wind together now represent nearly a quarter of the demand for electricity and nearly 10% of all energy consumption in the US said the report, released Thursday by Bloombergnef and the Business Council for Sustainable Energy.
At the same time, the demand for natural gas increased 1.3%, enough to deceive carbon emissions in the US by half a percent. The attempt was mainly driven by industrial users and power plants that burn natural gas, mainly to generate energy or heat.
The new report lands at a time when SH.BA is at a crossroads. The country’s carbon emissions have been declining nearly 16% since 2005, with energy -related emissions over 40% for the same period. The US has also received more productive with the energy it uses, generating 2.3% more economic production last year for a certain amount of energy consumed.
At the same time, The demand for electricity is projected to increase significantly in the coming years. According to a report by Grid Strategies, the US can use 15.8% more electricity by 2029. Which technology supplies that electricity can determine the country’s impact on climate change for the following decades.
Strict demand from databases is the only largest driver of the new electricity demand. Technology companies have invested in new massive data centers for cloud energy operations and foster their ambitions. The rhythm of the additions is accelerated to the point that half of all new servers of it can be supported by 2027.
Such forecasts have undertaken technology enterprises to provide energy resources for the coming years. Microsoft, Google and Amazon have announced all significant investments in nuclear energy, supporting beginnings like Cairos and X-Energy while reviving old nuclear reactors while not directly emitting carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions.
They are also continuing to add renewable energy to their portfolios. Only this year, to meet the increasing demands of its power -hungry data centers, Amazon has entered into agreement with energy manufacturers to add 476 megawatts, while Meta bought 200 megawatts in a deal and 595 megawatts in one else. Agreements have been dominated by the solar, reflecting the trend across the country. This is partly because technology is cheap, and new solar farms are fast to bring online. For technology companies printed of electricity, cost and speed matter.
Consumption of the mind of efficiency can further help technology giants by extracting more energy from the network without the need for more capacities dramatically. A study published last week suggests that delicate tweak – such as scheduling computing tasks at moments of lower energy demand or moving them to more capacity regions – can unlock 76 gigawatts in the US in SH.BA that are as much as 10% of the peak demand of energy across the country.
Smart adaptations like they can be required if the US will maintain the pace with global competitors. Despite the record costs for the energy transition, the US still remains in China in capital setting. When the US spent 1.3% of GDP in transition last year, China spent 4.4%.
