Renewables = 84% of New Electricity Generation Capacity in 1st Quarter of 2015 (Exclusive)
Support CleanTechnica's work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe.
Building off of a strong January and February, new electricity generation capacity added in the USA in March brought the 1st quarter split to 84% for all renewables, 81% for solar + wind.
Utility-scale solar power now accounts for 1% of total US electricity generation capacity, small-scale solar an estimated 0.7%, and wind 5.6%. Of course, hydro is still the largest source among all renewables, accounting for 8.5% of all US electricity generation capacity.
While the trends in recent months and years are quite positive, we’re still adding a lot of natural gas, and the total installed capacity of coal (27.6%) + natural gas (41.8%) + oil (3.9%) = a depressing 73.3% of the total US power capacity pie.
Let’s rejoice in the 84% split for renewables so far in 2015, but let’s remember that we need to work hard to speed up this transition and the closure of fossil fuel power plants that harm our health, threaten a livable climate, and cause innumerable premature deaths every year.
You can check out more details in the charts and table below.
Sign up for CleanTechnica's Weekly Substack for Zach and Scott's in-depth analyses and high level summaries, sign up for our daily newsletter, and follow us on Google News!
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Sign up for our daily newsletter for 15 new cleantech stories a day. Or sign up for our weekly one on top stories of the week if daily is too frequent.
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.
CleanTechnica's Comment Policy
