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Originally published on ILSR.org

Nearly 7 gigawatts of new power generation capacity came online in the second quarter of 2021. Renewable energy generation capacity growth was comparable to last quarter, while new fossil gas construction dropped dramatically. In 4 of the last 8 quarters, the fossil gas contribution to new power generation capacity has been less than 10%. It has been two years since fossil fuel plants made up the majority of quarterly added generation capacity.

In the chart below, we illustrate the past two years of new power plant capacity in the US, disaggregated by energy source on a quarterly basis.

Wind Picks Up Large Solar’s Losses

After contributing over 30% of quarterly new power generation capacity for the last three quarters, utility-scale solar has lost some steam. 1.8 gigawatts of utility-scale solar came online this quarter, compared to 2.6 gigawatts in the first quarter of 2021. The solar industry as a whole is facing some supply constraints, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie.

The development of the wind industry, on the other hand, picked up slightly this quarter. 3.3 gigawatts of wind generation capacity were installed in the second quarter of 2021, compared to just under 3 gigawatts in the previous quarter. Wind power made up nearly half of all generation capacity added this quarter, making wind the largest contributor to new power generation capacity for three straight quarters. All of the wind capacity built out in the second quarter of 2021 was onshore.


Find out how we can Get More Solar by Making Utilities Share Data.


Demand for Distributed Solar is Only Growing

Distributed solar had a strong showing in the second quarter of 2021, showing a slight edge over an already impressive first quarter. The 100 megawatt quarter-over-quarter increase in generation capacity growth can be attributed to increases in residential, commercial, and community solar.


Watch as community solar progresses nationwide in our National Community Solar Programs Tracker.


According to SEIA and Wood Mackenzie, most residential solar was installed in California, Florida, or Texas. In California and Texas, the electric grid has shown itself vulnerable to failure or wildfire-induced shutoffs. Residents recovering from shut-offs and massive grid failures have every reason to find resilience through solar.


Distributed solar, especially when paired with storage, can provide great resilience to residential electric customers. See how installing solar with storage on Puerto Rico’s homes could power the island with 75% renewable energy by 2035 and provide resiliency for all.


The federal solar investment tax credit is not scheduled to step down into 2022, so 2021 may not see the same end of the year solar push as seen in previous years.

Gas Buildout Grinds to a Halt

Only 9 gas plants were built in the second quarter of 2021, with a total nameplate capacity of 346 megawatts — the lowest second quarter for gas on record. Only the third quarters of 2019 and 2020 had lower showings for gas buildout. Could the third quarter of 2021 set a new quarterly low for gas?

Gas has contributed less than 10% of new generation capacity in 4 of the last 8 quarters. Given current trends toward higher gas prices, and proposed federal policy, it is unlikely that conventional fossil gas will ever be a majority of new power plant capacity again.

Interested in earlier trends and analysis of new power plant capacity? Check out our archive, illustrating how electricity generation has changed in previous quarters and years.


This article originally posted at ilsr.org. For timely updates, follow John Farrell on Twitter or get the Energy Democracy weekly update.

Featured Photo Credit: U.S. Department of Agriculture via Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)

 

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Tesla (TSLA) begins to shy away from growth guidance after terrible quarter

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Tesla (TSLA) begins to shy away from growth guidance after terrible quarter

Tesla (TSLA) is no longer confidently stating growth in its automotive business for 2025, and it has delayed updating its guidance until the next quarter after a disappointing performance in the first three months of the year.

2024 was Tesla’s first year in a decade where its vehicle deliveries went down year-over-year.

Just a few months ago, in January, Tesla was confident in predicting that it would return to growth in 2025:

“With the advancements in vehicle autonomy and the introduction of new products, we expect the vehicle business to return to growth in 2025.”

    Today, Tesla released its Q1 2025 financial results, confirming that it had its worst quarter in years to start 2025.

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    The automaker is now clearly not as confident about returning to growth in its automotive business this year.

    Tesla updated its “outlook” section this quarter to highlight the potential impact of trade policies and now no longer discusses automotive growth in isolation. Instead, it bundled automotive and energy businesses together and said that it will “revisit its 2025 guidance” next quarter:

    It is difficult to measure the impacts of shifting global trade policy on the automotive and energy supply chains, our cost structure and demand for durable goods and related services. While we are making prudent investments that will set up both our vehicle and energy businesses for growth, the rate of growth this year will depend on a variety of factors, including the rate of acceleration of our autonomy efforts, production ramp at our factories and the broader macroeconomic environment. We will revisit our 2025 guidance in our Q2 update.

    Tesla’s vehicle deliveries are already down about 50,000 units so far this year compared to last year.

    It will be challenging to catch up in the current macroeconomic situation.

    Tesla again guided the start of production of “new affordable models” in the first half of 2025, which could help the automaker to deliver more cars.

    However, as we have previously reported, these new vehicles are expected to be stripped-down Model Y and Model 3, which will cannibalize Tesla’s current sales and limit its growth to those products.

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US DC fast charging network surges past 55K ports – and it’s getting more reliable

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US DC fast charging network surges past 55K ports – and it's getting more reliable

US DC fast charging is becoming more reliable, and charging stations are getting bigger and busier, according to a new Q1 2025 report from the EV data analysts at Paren.

DC fast charging station reliability is on the rise

Paren’s latest US Reliability Index – “Can I successfully charge at this charger?” – increased from 81.2 points in Q4 2024 to 82.6 points in Q1 2025, a notable jump of 1.7%. According to Bill Ferro, CTO at Paren, “This continues a quarterly trend across the US non-Tesla fast charging infrastructure, which suggests that the ongoing efforts to replace or sunset older hardware are having a positive impact on station uptime. In addition, newer entrants into the field are bringing time-tested hardware along with enhanced driver experiences.”

Utah, Alaska, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Nevada were the top-ranked states for DC fast charging reliability in Q1 2025.

Growth slows, but charging stations are getting larger

New DC fast charging ports grew to 55,580 at the end of Q1 2025, up 3,667 from last quarter, with total stations reaching 10,839, an increase of 794. This is fewer new additions compared to the surge seen at the end of 2024, reflecting typical seasonal slowdowns due to winter weather. However, there’s a bright spot: the average number of ports per station among non-Tesla networks rose to 3.9, compared to 2.7 year-over-year. The Tesla Supercharger network now averages 13 ports per station.

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Utilization rates reflect the urban-rural divide

Average utilization – that’s the minutes of a charging session as a percentage of time a station is open each day – dropped slightly from 16.6% in Q4 2024 to 16.2% in Q1 2025, following typical holiday travel patterns. But overall, charging use is climbing, especially in dense urban areas with significant rideshare and apartment communities that rely heavily on public chargers.

Early days for NACS transition

The Combined Charging System (CCS) remains dominant, with 59% of new ports, and the shift toward Tesla’s NACS (J3400) standard is still in its very early stages. Only 104 non-Tesla NACS ports were added this quarter at non-Tesla networks, so drivers of new non-Tesla vehicles need to use their adapters if they want to use Superchargers.

Fixed pricing prevails

Charging operators primarily use fixed pricing (80%), with Time of Use (TOU) pricing making up 16%. Pay-by-time options are rare, used only 4.2% of the time.

California is the only major state where TOU pricing surpasses fixed pricing, while many states, such as Oklahoma, Vermont, and Arkansas, almost exclusively utilize fixed pricing models.

As for the most expensive places to fast charge your EV? The top four metropolitan statistical areas are all in California, with average rates at $0.60 or $0.61 per kWh.

Rural and low-income areas at risk

The Trump administration’s cancellation of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program poses a significant threat to rural and low-income communities. Loren McDonald, chief analyst at Paren, cautioned, “Our data is a harbinger of less expansion in rural and lower-income markets as CPOs will increasingly focus on urban markets, seeing high utilization, often north of 30%, versus markets with less than 5% utilization.”

‘Charging 2.0’ – a new industry phase

McDonald summed up the report by marking 2024 as a pivotal year, stating, “2024 was a year of mixed news in the US DC fast charging industry, but it will be remembered as a pivotal turn to a new era we are calling ‘Charging 2.0’. Charge-point operators and new players in the industry are increasingly focused on creating a great customer experience, improving reliability of chargers, and reaching profitability – a shift from chasing the availability of incentives, racing to get chargers in the ground, and then crossing your fingers that utilization will grow over time.”

Read more: Trump just canceled the federal NEVI EV charger program


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Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisers to help you every step of the way. Get started here. –ad*

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Tesla (TSLA) Q1 2025 financial results: missed big on already terrible expectations

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Tesla (TSLA) Q1 2025 financial results: missed big on already terrible expectations

Tesla (TSLA) released its financial results and shareholders’ letter for the first quarter (Q1) and full-year 2025 after market close today.

We are updating this post with all the details from the financial results, shareholders’ letter, and the conference call later tonight. Refresh for the latest information.

Tesla Q1 2025 earnings expectations

As we reported in our Tesla Q1 2025 earnings preview yesterday, the Wall Street consensus for this quarter was $21.345 billion in revenue and earnings of $0.41 per share.

The expectations had been significantly downgraded over the last month, as analysts were surprised by Tesla’s announcement of much lower deliveries than expected in the first quarter.

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Did Tesla meet them?`

Tesla Q1 2025 financial results

After the market closed today, Tesla released its financial results for the first quarter and confirmed that it missed expectations with earnings of $0.27 per share (non-GAAP), and it also missed revenue expectations with $19.335 billion during the last quarter.

This is a big miss for Tesla despite the company admitting to selling a lot more regulatory credits this quarter.

At $595 million in credit sales, Tesla would have lost money without it in Q1 2025:

In short, Tesla is on the verge of being a money-losing company.

We will be posting our follow-up posts here about the earnings and conference call to expand on the most important points (refresh the page to see the most recent posts):

Here’s Tesla’s Q1 2025 shareholder presentation in full:

Here’s Tesla’s conference call for the Q1 2025 results:

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