Revolution Now

The Future Is Here For Clean Energy Technology

Clean, low-cost energy is transforming the U.S. economy. Over the past decade, we’ve seen the payoff from nearly 45 years of federally funded research and development on clean energy. From wind and solar power to electric vehicles and LED lighting, clean energy technologies are dramatically declining in cost and benefitting more homes and businesses—while reducing pollution and creating millions of new American jobs.¹ Clean energy is delivering solutions to help us meet important federal health and environmental safeguards in an increasingly affordable way. To continue the progress, we need massive federal investments in U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) research and development (R&D), demonstration and deployment programs, as well as performance standards to drive the adoption of innovative technologies.

Move your cursor over the charts below to see how wind, solar, LED lighting, and electric vehicles are making cleaner, cheaper, and more effective energy solutions available to more Americans. Unimaginable future breakthroughs are possible with sustained funding for R&D—which is why it’s so important to maintain the innovation budget at the DOE. It is also critical to strengthen limits on the carbon pollution that drives climate change, which will provide a clear signal to businesses to further invest in clean energy solutions.

Wind

Large wind farms have been around for more than 40 years, but only recently has the cost of wind power declined enough to support significant capacity. Since 2008, the average price of wind energy has dropped by 74 percent, reaching a record low in 2018. As the technology becomes better and cheaper, more utilities are installing wind farms and purchasing more wind power. Nationwide wind capacity grew from 25 gigawatts (GW) in 2008 to more than 105 GW in 2019—enough to power more than 32 million U.S. homes.² This makes wind power the third-largest source of electricity generation capacity in the U.S.³

This dramatic increase in wind capacity would not have been possible without technology advancements that resulted from federal investment in R&D. From the 1980s to 2018, the height of wind turbines in the U.S. increased fourfold (from 66 feet to 289 feet) and the blade length grew fivefold (33 feet to 190 feet), allowing each turbine to capture more energy.⁴ These technological feats—and their associated benefits—were funded in part by the $3 billion that the DOE invested in wind R&D between 1976 and 2020.⁵ Further R&D investment—in innovations such as even taller wind turbines, advanced control systems, and offshore wind turbine technologies—will continue to lower costs, increase efficiency, and allow us to take even greater advantage of our vast domestic wind resources.

Solar

In little more than a decade, solar technology has evolved from running our calculators to producing enough electricity to power more than 17.7 million U.S. homes.⁷ This exciting growth—the fastest of any generating technology—has been possible because of dramatic cost declines.

The solar industry supports a vibrant clean energy economy, with 380,000 Americans employed full- and part-time. Of that, there were 175,000 full-time workers in the distributed (on-site) solar sector and another 84,000 working on utility-scale solar energy in 2019.⁸ Continued R&D investment—in areas such as cutting-edge, high-performance solar cells and grid integration tools—will lower costs further while increasing efficiency and reliability, bringing this clean resource to even more Americans.

Utility-Scale Solar

The cost of installing giant solar farms that can generate enough electricity to be delivered by utilities decreased by 82 percent from 2008 to 2019. In late 2017, the DOE’s Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) announced that it had already met its 2020 goal for cost reductions in utility-scale projects—three years early.⁹ SETO is now working toward its 2030 goals to address grid reliability, financing, and grid integration while continuing to lower solar costs and grow the solar industry.¹⁰

Distributed Solar

A similar trend of plummeting costs has driven the expansion of distributed solar systems, which generate electricity for local homes and businesses either through rooftop solar panels or via community projects that provide power to entire neighborhoods. Costs to install these smaller-scale solar systems have been cut by 82 percent since 2008, enabling a 40-fold increase in adoption by 2019.

LED Lighting

LED (light-emitting diode) bulbs were barely on the radar in 2009, when only 400,000 of them were installed nationwide. By 2018, more than 1.1 billion LED bulbs had been installed in light sockets across America—nearly double the installations from the previous year and a 3,000-fold increase from 2009. LEDs are now a no-brainer. Not only has their price dropped by 95 percent since 2008, but their energy usage is typically 75 to 80 percent lower than equivalent incandescent bulbs, with the best bulbs saving even more.¹³ That means big electric bill savings for American families.

Further R&D will make LEDs cheaper and more efficient and will also push other lighting technology, such as organic LEDs that create the potential for ultrathin, ultrabright, and potentially even foldable lighting.

Electric Vehicles

Electric vehicles (EVs) are charging into America’s car market in a big way. In 2019, more than 320,000 EVs were sold, bringing the total number on U.S. roads to more than 1.4 million. Advancements in EV technology have come in many forms—such as better drive trains, lighter materials, and improved charging—but the limiting factor for growth has been battery costs. Federal research has helped bring down the price of lithium-ion batteries by 86 percent since 2010, a feat that has enabled the EV industry to expand.

Future R&D will continue to drive down costs while increasing efficiency and range. These advancements will make EVs accessible to an increasing number of Americans, saving drivers money and reducing emissions in the transportation sector, America's largest source of climate pollution.

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