The Donald Trump administration has taken extraordinary measures to reverse the renewable energy transition in the United States, but the decarbonization stage is already set. Wind and especially solar already far outpace natural gas for new power generation additions to the nation’s grid, and that trend is expected to continue as signs indicate the demand for renewable energy has nowhere to go but up. Here are three of them.

1. More Information About Greenhouse Gas Emissions Is Available at the Click of a Button

Federal energy policy aside, many U.S. states continue to pursue vigorous clean power portfolios. Global firms operating in the U.S. also require information about the sources of electricity flowing through the grid in order to fulfill their clean power commitments, further cementing the renewable energy transition.

Responding to these demand-side forces, in 2022 the leading U.S. grid operator MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator) launched an online greenhouse emissions dashboard, enabling users to track the carbon intensity of the MISO grid across 15 midwestern and southern states. Last year the organization improved its projections to achieve emissions reporting almost in real time.

MISO is one of several regional operators established in the 1990s to support national grid reliability and resilience. Its territory includes Iowa and other states with a considerable stake in wind energy. Part or all of Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin also come under the MISO umbrella, along with a small foothold in Texas.

Even after President Trump took office in January, MISO continued to improve its emissions reporting, launching a new "Consumed" feature to the dashboard in March that provides a high level of detail on carbon emission at the user end.

“Increasingly stringent regulations, member goals and customer needs are driving requests for MISO to leverage its operational data to provide credible emissions data estimates,” the organization noted in a recent report on its emissions tracking activities, regarding the renewable energy transition. “Drivers for this interest include meeting and reporting emission reduction goals, creating new tariffs to support end use customer demands, increased visibility for operational decisions making, and information to aid investment decisions."

Read the full article about the renewable energy transition by Tina Casey at Triple Pundit.