Supporting The Integration of Renewables

A reliable electrical grid is essential to nearly every aspect of modern life, underpinning our economy, national security, healthcare, transportation, education, food safety, and countless other daily necessities. We flip a switch, and the lights come on – but behind the scenes, grid operators must continuously match instantaneous demand with available generation resources.

As our nation and the world transition to cleaner energy sources such as wind and solar power, flexible natural gas assets play a critical role in ensuring the resiliency and reliability of our energy supply. The grid must withstand or quickly recover from unexpected outages as well as disruptive events like natural disasters, cyberattacks, or other unforeseen emergencies.

In 2024, the Clearway enterprise owned 2.6 GW of natural gas generation, including 2.3 GW of efficient, quick-start natural gas peaker plants in California. These plants are capable of dynamically adjusting their output during peak load conditions, maintaining the delicate balance between electrical supply and demand.

When offline, these assets serve as non-spinning reserve, ready to start and ramp to full production rapidly if the grid operator needs to rebalance the system in response to an unexpected disturbance. Some units also provide “black start” capability, a critical function for restoring electric service if an extraordinary event causes widespread outages.

By supporting California’s safe and reliable transition to increasing levels of intermittent renewable sources, our natural gas assets play a vital role in reducing carbon emissions from the electric sector. Complementing these assets, the balance of our net owned portfolio consists of 6.5 GW of wind, solar, and energy storage facilities.

In 2024, 95% of the electricity generated by the Clearway enterprise was carbon-free,* achieving our 2035 goal and placing Clearway among the leaders in the US power sector for low carbon intensity. For the same year, Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions from our flexible assets were 0.46 million and 0.00456 million tonnes, respectively.

Looking ahead, we are committed to achieving our goal of reaching net-zero Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 2050. Clearway Energy, Inc.’s (CWEN) parent company and primary development partner, Clearway Energy Group, maintains a renewable development pipeline that exceeds 30 GW. This pipeline will continue to expand CWEN’s portfolio of renewable assets, further reducing carbon intensity over time.

Footnote: *Estimates are based on 12 months of net generated electricity and are approximate. They are not used in our formal emission inventories. Calculations use CO2 emission rates from the US EPA AVoided GeneRation Tool (AVERT), except for Hawaii, which uses the eGRID CO2 emission rates.