“We don’t want to deprive ourselves of something that could help lower the costs of energy in the long-term”
Chris Seiple, Vice Chairman, Energy Transition and Power & Renewables at Wood Mackenzie
In this episode of Good Energy, Chris Seiple, Vice Chairman of Power and Renewables at Wood Mackenzie, discusses key findings from the latest Solar Market Insights (SMI) Report. The report highlights several groundbreaking achievements from the U.S. solar industry from 2024, from adding 50 new gigawatts of generation capacity to being responsible for 84% of new energy capacity in 2024.
Seiple explains how incentives and tax credits are helping to accelerate solar deployment and boost domestic manufacturing, increasing American national security. The bottlenecks that exist in further increasing American solar capacity are not related to the availability of solar projects but mostly the ability to upscale transmission capacity. He explains the forecasts outlined in the SMI report, where a best-case scenario featuring things like grid-enhancing technologies could add an additional 100 gigawatts of solar capacity to the grid. Meanwhile, the phaseout of current government incentives for the solar energy industry could slow solar capacity growth by 25%.
Looking ahead, Seiple provides insights into the long-term trajectory of solar energy, mentioning the fast-growing demand for energy in the United States fueled by AI and data centers. He explains that meeting this energy demand with solar and storage is a critical national security point in order to ensure that data centers exist on American soil. He concludes by discussing the geopolitical need to promote solar energy so that the cost of this developing domestic industry decrease in the long term.
From in-depth interviews with industry leaders to insightful discussions on the rapid growth of solar and storage in the United States, Good Energy connects you with the heartbeat of the solar industry. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or just curious about the future of energy, tune in to stay informed and inspired about the bright future of solar. Listen to full episodes on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
special guest
Chris Seiple
Vice Chairman, Energy Transition and Power & Renewables, Wood Mackenzie
Chris is the Vice Chairman of Wood Mackenzie’s Power & Renewables group. He is responsible for ensuring thought leadership, advising on the strategic direction of the business, and senior stakeholder engagement and relationship management.
Chris brings 30 years of global power industry experience to this role. His career has spanned strategy consulting work for power companies and banks at Cambridge Energy Research Associates (now part of IHS/S&P), debt and equity financing of power-related investments at GE Energy Financial Service and managing a portfolio of power plants owned by EFS. He also led the power organisation at Genscape, where he expanded its real-time power markets monitoring business into analytics and software service businesses through both organic growth and acquisitions.
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