Source page: McKinsey & Company
Commentary
Talent crunch
Infrastructure | Renewable energy
July 13, 2023 – The provisions of the US Inflation Reduction Act could help grow capacity for renewables such as solar, onshore wind, and batteries almost three times faster than projected before the law took effect. However, senior partner Humayun Tai and colleagues warn that engineering and construction capacity may not be adequate to meet the vastly increased demand. In response, they say players in renewables can rethink traditional industry practices and unlock more-efficient project delivery. Click through the interactive to see more.
Interactive
To read the article, see “Build together: Rethinking solar project delivery,” June 9, 2023.
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Visual form
Two-panel stacked area chart.
Layout / body structure
The chart is a left-to-right pair: a before-Inflation-Reduction-Act projection on the left and an after-Inflation-Reduction-Act projection on the right.
What is being compared
It compares projected US installed solar, onshore wind, and storage capacity from 2021 through 2032 under the pre-IRA and post-IRA scenarios.
Measurement system
The measure is installed capacity in gigawatts, with stacked areas showing how each technology contributes to the total and annual-growth callouts summarizing the trajectory.
Visible structure inside the graphic
Both panels use the same timeline and scale, the stacked layers separate onshore wind, solar photovoltaics, and storage, and the titles make the before-versus-after comparison explicit.
Main takeaway from the visual
The after-IRA panel rises far more steeply, showing that the law changes the growth path from a moderate build-out to a much faster capacity expansion.
Key standout values or extremes
The strongest visible contrast is the shift from +6 percent per annum before the Act to +16 percent per annum after it, with the post-IRA total climbing past 1,200 gigawatts by 2032 while the pre-IRA path stays below 500.
Controls / sequence, when applicable
The published page no longer embeds the original sequence, so this outline is describing the chart pair directly rather than a live on-page widget.
Companion media, when applicable
There is no separate companion audio or video; the chart is the full visual on this page.