Renewable energy, while helping nations reach their clean energy goals, presents challenges to the power grid. Solar and wind power are often unpredictable and not always able to produce power at maximum capacity when demand peaks. See what’s in store for the grid.
How much of the U.S. power grid is currently renewable energy?
Source: Yes Energy
Renewable energy generates about 20% of U.S. electricity annually, according to the Department of Energy. Of this, the largest source of renewable power is wind, followed by hydropower.
The impact of renewable energy on the electric power grid
1. Renewable energy can create more energy than needed, creating challenges in balancing the grid
Mostly, the grid can absorb all the energy that renewable sources produce. However, renewables can sometimes produce more energy than the grid can reliably accept, driving prices lower or even negative.
ISOs can curtail renewable energy sources if there’s oversupply. We see this in CAISO often.
Curtailments can be market driven (low enough prices to incentivize lower production) and usually driven by grid operators manually curtailing power plants. Due to tax incentives, some renewable generation projects receive up to a $30/mwh credit and will continue to produce when local market prices are negative.
To avoid excessive curtailment, the power needs to be stored, such as in batteries or used by increasing demand, i.e. employing electric vehicle charging systems that respond to grid conditions.
2. Renewable energy drives a need for more grid-scale energy storage
Historically, power plants have had to produce electricity at the same time that consumers demand it. However, renewable energy sources sometimes produce too much power when demand drops.
This creates a need for utility-scale energy storage. For example, grid-scale batteries can charge when renewable sources of power operate at their peak and can store the charge for when demand is high or power is expensive and renewable intermittent generation is unavailable.
As of 2025, the U.S. has more than 26 GW of utility-scale battery storage capacity. While this number is growing rapidly, it still represents a tiny portion of the U.S.’ energy storage capacity. The most common method of grid-scale energy storage is pumped storage hydropower.
3. Renewable energy creates challenges in transmission
Many areas that abundantly produce renewable energy are far from the areas of greatest demand for that energy. This creates an issue with transmission and can cause gridlock – the challenge is delivering power to places with the most demand, hundreds of miles away from generation.
Planned renewable energy projects for the Texas power grid
Texas has a myriad of renewable energy projects planned and is currently a leading U.S. state producing renewable energy.
Source: Yes Energy's Infrastructure Insights
Upcoming California renewable energy projects
California has a vision to increase renewables, with the goal to reach 60% renewables by 2030.
Source: Yes Energy's Infrastructure Insights
Can the grid support these projects?
While the grid can support renewable energy, there is a backlog of renewable energy projects waiting for connection to the grid.
Source: Yes Energy
Changes to governmental regulations, increased investment in infrastructure, reskilling workers and securing supply chains can help alleviate this backlog, according to the International Energy Agency.
The grid has become one of the most complex human-made machines on the planet, and it’s only growing more complex. To see how you can track the impact of new generation and transmission projects as well as large loads, explore our Infrastructure Insights solution.
