Full Title: Solar Futures Study Fact Sheet
Author(s): U.S. Department of Energy
Publisher(s): U.S. Department of Energy and NREL
Publication Date: September 23, 2021
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
The Solar Futures Study explores potential pathways for solar energy to drive deep decarbonization of the U.S. electric grid by 2035, and envisions how further electrification could decarbonize the broader U.S. energy system by 2050.
The study was produced by the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The study draws on NREL’s decades of solar analysis expertise and was reviewed by an external panel of more than 70 experts.
The study focuses on three future scenarios, two of which assume the U.S. electric grid becomes 95% decarbonized by
2035 and 100% decarbonized by 2050. To achieve these levels of decarbonization, solar would need to account for 45% of electricity generation in 2050 with other zero-carbon energy sources—especially wind energy—supplying the rest.