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Biomass US Renewable Energy Capacity - Sept 2014

Published on November 2nd, 2014 | by Zachary Shahan

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Renewable Energy = 68% of New Electricity Capacity In September

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November 2nd, 2014 by Zachary Shahan 

The latest monthly numbers on electricity production capacity additions have been released by FERC. The result is another big month for renewable energy… and natural gas. As you can see in the first chart above, wind power accounted for the majority (61%) of new power capacity. Natural gas accounted for 19%, nuclear 12%, and solar 7%.

For the year to date, natural gas has accounted for 58% of new electricity production capacity, utility-scale solar 19%, wind 18%, and nothing else more than 2%. Together, renewables account for nearly 41% of all new capacity added in the first three quarters of 2014.

In total, the picture looks much worse (of course). 42% of US electricity production capacity comes from natural gas, 28% from coal, 9% from nuclear, 8.5% from water, 5% from wind, 4% from oil, and ~1% each from biomass and utility-scale solar.

But there is reason for hope. As the SUN DAY campaign noted in an email sent to CleanTechnica, “new capacity in 2014 from the combination of renewable energy sources thus far is almost 35 times that of coal, oil, and nuclear combined (3,598 MW vs. 104 MW).” Going on: “For the month of September alone, renewables accounted for over two-thirds of the 603 MW of new generating capacity put in-service [367 MW of wind (60.86%) plus 41 MW of solar (6.80%)].” The first three quarters of 2014 saw 11.8% more renewable energy capacity compared to the same period in 2013 (3,598 MW vs. 3,218 MW). We’re getting going. Things need to speed up, but I’m confident they will. Furthermore, here’s one more reminder that rooftop solar power is not included in these figures.

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US Renewable Energy Capacity - Sept 2014

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About the Author

spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.


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  • bmarcoux

    This chart does not give the full picture. Wind and solar capacity factor is around 30%, while gas and nuclear could be nearly 100%. The renewable share of energy generated by those new addition will be less than the chart would let us think.

    • Bob_Wallace

      You’re sort of right, sort of wrong. Solar CF averages a bit less than 20%. New wind farms are generating CFs around 40% and higher.

      90% is about max for nuclear. Gas plants could be run at something like 90% but they’re actually run at under 30% in the US.

      • bmarcoux

        Bob, you are right, although I would add that the reason gas plants are running at low capacity factor is because they are used as peakers, in part to balance when the wind is not blowing or the sun not shinning. It would be interesting to look at the market value of the energy produced by the new addition.
        By the way, I am all for renewables. I am just pointing out that there is still a lot of work to do.

        • Bob_Wallace

          Sure.

          In general it would probably be better if we quit talking about capacity and concentrated on produced power. The most legitimate discussion about capacity is whether we have adequate dispatchable generation to cover the low wind/solar input hours.

          I expect NG plants to continue to return low CF. Perhaps even lower. As storage comes on line it will eat into NG’s role, pushing NG further into the background.

  • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

    Yeah, unfortunately, it’s presented quarterly, and I’m not sure if the exact residential numbers are provided in the summary report, but I can probably get them from SEIA/GTM Research. They’ve provided me with data from the reports in the past.

  • Michael G

    Any idea why solar YTD capacity added is less for 2014 than for 2013? I expected a large y-y increase. A decrease is depressing.

    • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

      I think some large utility-scale installations in 2013.

  • Ron Winton

    Great News !

  • Wayne Williamson

    The 52 percent increase in renewables from 2012 to 2040 is just plain depressing……I don’t think they are right, but still…..

    • Wayne Williamson

      just some more info from the gov article….
      http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/MT_electric.cfm

      “Solar photovoltaics and wind dominate renewable capacity growth
      Total renewable generating capacity grows by 52% from 2012 to 2040 in the AEO2014 Reference case. Nonhydropower renewable capacity, particularly wind and solar, nearly doubles (Figure MT-36) and accounts for almost all of the growth in renewable capacity.”

      • Larmion

        Quite a depressing forecast the EIA presents. Coal stagnant, coal booming, renewables growing relatively slowly in absolute terms and nuclear stagnant (or worse). http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/images/fig_mt-30.png

        So in short: carbon emissions up. If that’s indeed the trajectory America will be taking, we’re well on track towards 4 or 6 degrees of warming.

        • Ronald Brakels

          In Australia we will never build another coal plant as new coal is simply not competitive with new renewables. And this is the case despite Australia’s current lack of a carbon price and the fact that in some locations the marginal cost of coal is only a few dollars a tonne. The US is in a similar situation and coal use will decline there as old plants are retired, so fortunately coal use won’t be steady for decades to come.

          • Larmion

            The studies that show renewables to be cheaper than renewables typically include externalities. Sadly, a fossil power producer currently has to take into account only the cost per kWh of electricity produced, not any externalities he causes – or at least not to a significant extent.

            And no energy source, renewable or not, currently comes close to lignite or coal when it comes purely to cost of electricity on a global scale. Local exceptions exist in countries where domestic production is impossible or insufficient and where export is expensive (island nations, some developing countries), but those account for a fairly small share of global electricity production.

            Coal will be over the minute even a very modest carbon price is levied, either via cap and trade or a flat tax, but neither scheme seems to be viable. Political will is absent across the world for a carbon tax, while cap and trade has proved to be an impossible tight rope dance (adjust too often and damaging uncertainty ensues, don’t adjust too often and the price falls through the floor as in Europe).

          • Ronald Brakels

            Larmion, because of distribution costs, point of use solar provides electricity to Australians at a lower cost than any utility scale generation including coal. New wind capacity also appears to be cheaper than new coal capacity:

            http://reneweconomy.com.au/2013/renewables-now-cheaper-than-coal-and-gas-in-australia-62268

            And note that a new coal plant doesn’t just have to compete with the cost of renewables now, it has to compete with the cost of renewables at the time its construction is complete and then for the rest of its operating life.

          • Bob_Wallace

            “And no energy source, renewable or not, currently comes close to lignite or coal when it comes purely to cost of electricity on a global scale. ”

            Huh?

            Where can you build a coal plant for less than $2/watt?

            (Both onshore wind and solar are under $2 in the US. And that means that they can be built for less than $2/watt anywhere. The minimum installed cost for a coal plant in the US is at least 2x higher.)

            And where can you run a coal plant for $0.01/kWh?

            Have you seen what has happened to the market value of coal companies in the last couple of years?

  • Marc Dorwitt

    Where did they install 70 mw of nuclear, i thought nuclear plants were usually aroung 1,000 mw capacity?

    • Larmion

      Uprates. When nuclear reactors age, parts of the reactor like pumps, valves and such like get replaced. Newer parts are more efficient (i.e. pumps that use less power or pipes that leak les heat), which means the same amount of reactor heat produces slightly more electrical power. It’s not uncommon for older plants to see their electrical output rise by as much as 10% through the cumulative effect of many such improvements.

      • Marc Dorwitt

        Thanks for the explanation, glad that they are getting more juice from the old plants.

  • Senlac

    Zach, is there a way of estimating the percent of roof top solar of all solar. Say 1/3 ??

    • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

      Have been thinking about trying to do that. SEIA/GTM Research come out with quarterly figures and I think estimates. Could try to extrapolate from those. Been thinking about trying to do that.

  • Steve N

    Does someone have an estimate of total rooftop installations YTD?

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