“Small-scale solar photovoltaics (e.g., rooftop solar systems) alone grew by 19.22% YTD. Compared to all other energy sources, solar-generated electricity has enjoyed the fastest growth rate thus far in 2019.” Natural gas generation grew by 6.71%, nuclear energy generation grew by 0.8%, and coal-generated electricity generation declined by 14.46%.
The United States’ Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has apparently “dramatically revised” its three-year forecast for changes in the country’s electrical generating capacity mix, according to the SUN DAY Campaign, with sharp declines expected for fossil fuel and nuclear generation offset by even stronger growth in renewable energy.
Speaking on Wednesday at the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), better known as COP24, the United States doubled-down on its allegiance to the fossil fuel industry and a business-as-usual case, while further espousing a view about its emissions levels that is beginning to bear less and less relation with the truth.
To complement our revival of US electricity capacity reports, here’s a new report on US electricity generation.
As with the capacity report, things are not looking too bright. There’s still a lot of grey — in the bar charts below, in the skies near fossil fuel power plants, and in the human and planetary outlook based on how slowly we are cutting fossil fuel electricity generation.
I’m restarting regular US renewable energy reports here on CleanTechnica. However, this time around, I’m making them quarterly reports instead of monthly reports. Quarterly reports are better at capturing the trends, and some other organizations do contribute monthly updates.
A new independent assessment by The Brattle Group of US President Donald Trump’s plan to bail out the country’s coal and nuclear plants has concluded that the cost of such a bailout could balloon to $70 billion over two years.
Renewable energy sources in the United States grew by another 10% in the first half of 2017, according to new figures published by the country’s Energy Information Administration and highlighted by Ken Bossong’s Sun Day Campaign.
Accompanying my latest report on US electricity generation capacity, this article covers the latest figures on US electricity generation (that is, actual electricity produced, not just production capability). While the capacity numbers come from FERC and my own estimates, the generation data and estimates now come from the US Energy Information … [continued]
Using data from FERC and rooftop solar power estimates of my own*, it seems that 69% of newly installed US electricity generation capacity was from renewable energy power plants, with 67% from solar and wind power. In the month of December, 100% of new power capacity came from wind and … [continued]
Editor’s note: I write about solar and wind power obsessively, almost every day. Still, FERC’s recent numbers came as a bit of a surprise to me. Over 28% of new US power capacity in Q1 was from large-scale solar installations (small- and medium-scale installations would actually boost solar’s percentage of … [continued]
