Solar panels.
(Image credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Last year, solar energy provided less than 4 percent of the United States' electricity. On Wednesday, the Biden administration said it wants to get that number up to 45 percent by mid-century.

The Energy Department's announcement is the latest example of the White House's ambitious goals aimed at fighting climate change. To get to the point they want to reach, the U.S. will have to double the amount of solar energy installed every year over the next four years compared with last year, and then double that amount again by 2030.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.