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RENEWABLE SOURCES PROVIDE 92% OF NEW CAPACITY
FOR FIRST TWO MONTHS OF 2014
According to the latest “Energy Infrastructure Update” report from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Office of Energy Projects, wind and solar provided 80.9% of new installed U.S. electrical generating capacity for the month of February. Five new “units” of wind provided 99 MW while 12 units of solar provided 92%. In addition, one new unit of natural gas provided 45 MW.For the first two months of 2014, renewable energy sources (i.e., biomass, geothermal, solar, water, wind) accounted for 91.9% of the 568 MW of new domestic electrical generating installed. Coal, oil, and nuclear provided none while natural gas and 1 MW of “other” provided the balance.
Renewable energy sources, including hydropower, now account for 16.14% of total installed U.S. operating generating capacity: water – 8.45%, wind – 5.26%, biomass – 1.37%, solar – 0.73%, and geothermal steam – 0.33%. This is more than nuclear (9.26%) and oil (4.05%) combined. *
“Another month dominated by renewables!” concluded Ken Bossong, Executive Director of the SUN DAY Campaign. “Only flat-earthers and climate-deniers can continue to question the fact that the age of renewable energy is now here.”
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The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission released its most recent 5-page “Energy Infrastructure Update,” with data through February 28, 2014, on March 20, 2014. See the tables titled “New Generation In-Service (New Build and Expansion)” and “Total Installed Operating Generating Capacity” at http://www.ferc.gov/legal/
* Note that generating capacity is not the same as actual generation. Actual net electrical generation from renewable energy sources in the United States now totals about 13% according to the most recent data (i.e., as of December 2013) provided by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
