(Photo: Johnson Controls and GRID installing a floating PV array in Walden, Colorado, last fall. Credit: Dennis Schroeder/NREL)The latest data from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) shows that coal and renewable energy installed capacity are virtually tied in the United States. During the first quarter of 2019, solar, wind, and hydropower equaled 59.6% of newly added capacity, according to a Sun Day Campaign analysis.
Ken Bossong, executive director of the nonprofit research and educational organization that promotes sustainable energy technologies, analyzed FERC’s Energy Infrastructure Update containing data through March 31, 2019.
The FERC numbers show that utility-scale renewable energy sources such as biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, and wind, account for 21.49% of the country’s total installed operating generating capacity. That’s nearly equal to coal, which came in at 21.68%. Renewable capacity was also more than double nuclear power’s 9.04%.
In addition, Bossong noticed a major change in the new FERC monthly report: the inclusion of a new “High Probability Additions” column in the “Proposed Generation Additions and Retirements by April 2022” table.
“It suggests that — over the next three years — net new additions in generating capacity by renewable energy sources will be nearly 100 greater than those of all fossil fuel and nuclear sources combined,” he wrote.
Net new additions of natural gas will total 20,304 MW, but be almost entirely offset by net retirements of coal, oil, and nuclear power for a net increase of only 398 MW, Bossong noted. At the same time, renewable energy technologies are projected to have the following net new additions: 24,866 MW of wind, 12,925 MW of solar, 415 MW of hydropower, 319 MW of biomass, and 280 MW of geothermal for a combined total of 38,805 MW.
The year 2019 could eventually be remembered as the beginning of the era of renewable energy dominance, Bossong added.
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