The best way to solve the power crisis is with renewables like solar energy

The Department of Energy last month issued a dire assessment of America’s electric supply, predicting “a surge in power outages and a growing mismatch between electricity demand and supply … threatening America’s energy security.” Residential electricity prices are forecast to rise another 15% to 40% by 2030.

For 25 years, U.S. electricity use was flat. Two years ago, experts realized that we would need far more to power artificial intelligence data centers, robotic manufacturing, electric vehicles, and digital appliances.

Where will this new power come from? DOE says it’s committed to “all forms of energy that are affordable, reliable, and secure.” That sounds reasonable, but the Trump administration has taken steps to boost coal and discourage what can be the cheapest and fastest solution to adding electricity capacity: solar, wind and batteries to store power for when it’s needed most.

Examples abound. On Aug. 22, the Department of the Interior ordered work halted on the Revolution Wind project off Rhode Island. All offshore wind projects, including New York’s Empire Wind, are in jeopardy, increasing the risk of blackouts and higher electric bills.

The reconciliation bill passed in July pared tax credits for billions of dollars in solar and wind projects. The Environmental Protection Agency has been trying to terminate the contracts and freeze the bank accounts of organizations like ours, which received seed money from Congress for public-private partnerships to create more clean-power infrastructure.

Many Washington officials still see renewable energy as a luxury. That is an outmoded view. Solar and wind mitigate the effects of a changing climate, but think of that as a bonus. Renewables offer energy that can be transformed into electric power more quickly and less expensively than other sources.

Listen to John Ketchum, CEO of NextEra, America’s third-largest electricity provider with an enormous natural gas portfolio. He said earlier this year, “You can build a wind project in 12 months, a storage facility in 15, and, you know, a solar project in 18 months.” A new gas-fired power plant will take seven or eight years.

It is also cheaper to locate solar and other renewables closer to customers. Offshore wind projects are near population centers, avoiding the construction of expensive long-distance transmission lines. And distributed solar and batteries can be placed near other areas of demand, preventing costly grid upgrades.

Texas, America’s top oil and gas producer in America, has been rushing to add new energy infrastructure, but in the last four years it has come almost exclusively from solar, wind and batteries. Texas isn’t embracing these solutions to combat climate change but because these solutions are the quickest and least costly way to meet growing demand.

Traditional banks shun these small projects, so green banks have been created in about half the states, both blue and red. One of the largest is here in New York. With private partners, it’s mobilized $8 billion in projects, including 800 community solar installations that cut utility bills and add capacity to a strained electric grid.

Times have changed. Policymakers have to recognize that clean energy is also smart, fast and low-cost energy — the best way to boost jobs and national security as we tackle this new electricity crisis.

This guest essay reflects the views of Richard Kauffman, CEO of the Coalition for Green Capital, and former chairman of energy and finance for New York state.