Building a clean, carbon-free electricity grid is the key to decarbonizing the US economy--including transportation, buildings, and much of industry in time to avert a climate crisis.
This includes retiring all coal and replacing it with reliable, affordable clean energy. We estimate the need to build roughly 700 gigawatts of new clean energy by 2030. To reach this goal, Sierra Club supports robust deployment of clean energy, including responsibly-sited wind, solar, and battery storage.
Solar: Sierra Club supports solar energy that is sited in ways that balance conservation priorities with the need to build out a clean grid. Sierra Club supports both distributed (rooftop) solar and responsibly-sited large scale solar, both of which are essential to an affordable, clean, and reliable grid.
Onshore wind: Today, wind is the only renewable, sustainable energy resource that is being seriously proposed for immediate development on a major scale. Sierra Club supports responsibly sited wind energy with robust public participation.
Offshore Wind: Sierra Club supports responsibly sited, equitably developed offshore wind power as one of the key ways to fight climate change and transition to 100% clean energy. Offshore wind turbines provide reliable, pollution-free energy to high populations on the coast and will create jobs, help stabilize energy prices, and ensure our families breathe clean air.
Battery storage: Battery storage is a key existing technology that can store wind and solar and release it back into the grid, lowering electricity costs and delivering a reliable grid.
Transmission: To build a 100% clean, reliable, and affordable grid, we need a significant amount of new transmission lines. Studies show that we need to double or triple the pace of responsibly-sited transmission buildout to decarbonize the grid on the timeline needed to stop climate catastrophe.
The average wind turbine generates enough electricity in just 46 minutes to power an average U.S. home for one month.
Solar, wind, and storage made up more than 90% of all grid additions in 2024. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA), the largest climate investment in US history, helped us achieve remarkable progress towards achieving the Paris climate targets. However, many of the Trump Administration's priorities threaten to undo this progress.
Green energy legislation under the Biden Administration created hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs and invested billions in energy communities (areas with a historical reliance on fossil fuel production).
$700
250,000
jobs in the solar industry
Clean energy saves money: The transition to 100% clean energy will save the average family up to 7200 dollars per year in energy costs and another $1,500 per year in healthcare costs.
Clean energy creates good-paying jobs: The solar industry already employs over 250,000 people, nearly twice as many people as the coal-mining industry. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the two fastest-growing jobs in the country are wind turbine technicians and solar panel installers.
South Fork Wind Farm up and running
The South Fork Wind Farm, over 30 miles off Montauk Point, is the first fully operational offshore wind farm in the country. The electricity generated powers over 70,000 homes and eliminates up to six million tons of carbon emissions over the life of the project, the equivalent of taking 60,000 cars off the road for the next 20 years.
Phoenix, Ariz. - Last night, clean energy candidates secured a major victory in the Salt River Project (SRP) board election, despite heavy involvement from extremist, anti-clean energy organizations and restrictive, archaic voting rules. …
Lawsuit claims Trump's use of 'Extinction Committee' violates law in numerous ways
DENVER — Today the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) officially expanded, connecting western and eastern electric grids and providing increased access to clean energy for major utilities across the West and Great Plains in Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Utah…
Salt Lake City – Today PacifiCorp, the parent company of Rocky Mountain Power, filed an update to its 2025 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) that forecasts how energy will be sourced for the next 20 years. In its update, the utility continues…
Endangered Species Committee cites ‘national security concerns’ in unanimous vote to exempt all Gulf oil and gas activities from Endangered Species Act
