Renewables Outpace Coal, Oil and Nuclear in The U.S. During First Half of Year (North American Windpower)
Renewable energy sources, including wind, solar, biomass, hydro and geothermal, accounted for 24.93% of all new U.S. electrical generating capacity installed in the first six months of this year for a total of 2,144 MW, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) latest Energy Infrastructure Update report (PDF).
Thus far this year, renewables provided more new generating capacity than did coal (1,579 MWe - 18.36%), oil (26 MWe - 0.30%) and nuclear power (0 MWe - 0.00%) combined. However, natural gas dominated the first half of 2013 with 4,852 MWe of new capacity (56.41%).
Among renewable energy sources, solar led the way for the first half of 2013 with 94 new "units" totaling 979 MWe followed by wind with eight new units totaling 959 MWe. Biomass added 36 new units totaling 116 MWe while water had eight new units with an installed capacity of 76 MWe and geothermal steam had one new unit of 14 MWe.
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