Renewables, gas kept U.S. grids stable during intense summer heat

Expanded electricity capacity from renewable sources like solar and wind, as well as gas, helped grid operators keep the lights on across the United States this summer, even as high temperatures drove demand.

“There were no major outages caused by inadequate generation capacity,” writes [pdf] the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in a recent report. “Although some consumers lost power because of localized events, the bulk power system—the network of generators and transmission lines—was able to supply sufficient electricity to keep the lights and air conditioners working.”

Demand for electricity either approached or exceeded record levels in several U.S. regions this past summer. Normally, widespread high demand would result in blackouts, but the grid’s performance in 2024 bucked that trend. NREL says this was largely because of increased power available from new energy technologies like solar, storage, and wind.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that gas-fired electricity generation also reached record levels in the summer and at times provided nearly half of all electricity generated in the contiguous U.S. Also noting the expansion of renewable sources, EIA said that “natural gas is used increasingly to balance the intermittent nature of electricity produced from wind and solar.”

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