Renewable Energy
Renewable Energy
Building a clean, carbon free electricity grid is the key to decarbonizing the US economy--including transportation, buildings, and industry--in time to avert a climate crisis.
We are committed to decarbonizing the grid 80% by 2030
This includes retiring all coal and replacing it with reliable, affordable clean energy. We estimate we need to build roughly 700 gigawatts of new clean energy by 2030. To reach this goal, Sierra Club supports robust deployment of clean energy, including responsibly-sited wind, solar, and battery storage.
Solar: Sierra Club supports solar energy that is sited in ways that balance conservation priorities with the need to build out a clean grid. Sierra Club supports both distributed (rooftop) solar and responsibly-sited large scale solar, both of which are essential to an affordable, clean, and reliable grid.
Onshore wind: Sierra Club supports responsibly sited wind energy.
Offshore Wind: Sierra Club supports responsibly sited, equitably developed offshore wind power as one of the key ways to fight climate change and transition to 100% clean energy. Offshore wind turbines provide reliable, pollution-free energy to high populations on the coast and will create jobs, help stabilize energy prices, and ensure our families breathe clean air.
Battery storage: Battery storage is a key existing technology that can store wind and solar and release it back into the grid, lowering electricity costs and delivering a reliable grid.
Transmission: To build a 100% clean, reliable, and affordable grid, we need a significant amount of new transmission lines. Studies show that we need to double or triple the pace of responsibly-sited transmission buildout to decarbonize the grid on the timeline needed to stop climate catastrophe.
The average wind turbine generates enough electricity in just 46 minutes to power an average U.S. home for one month.
We continue to deploy clean energy at record rates
Solar, wind, and storage make up more than 90% of all grid additions so far in 2024. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA), the largest climate investment in US history, is driving further development of clean energy, helping us achieve remarkable progress towards achieving the Paris climate targets, though more work is needed. On the way, the IRA has created hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs in the two years since it passed, and invested billions in energy communities (areas with a historical reliance on fossil fuel production).
$700
250,000
jobs in the solar industry
Clean energy saves money and creates jobs
Clean energy saves money: The transition to 100% clean energy will save the average family up to 7200 dollars per year in energy costs and another $1,500 per year in healthcare costs.
Clean energy creates good-paying jobs: The solar industry already employs over 250,000 people, nearly twice as many people as the coal-mining industry. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the two fastest-growing jobs in the country are wind turbine technicians and solar panel installers.
Victory!
South Fork Wind Farm up and running
The South Fork Wind Farm, over 30 miles off Montauk Point, is the first fully operational offshore wind farm in the country. The electricity generated will power over 70,000 homes and eliminate up to six million tons of carbon emissions over the life of the project, the equivalent of taking 60,000 cars off the road for the next 20 years.
