Nearly Two-Thirds of New Generating Capacity in 2015 from Renewable Sources

Scott Merrell

2015 was a huge year for green energy, where over 60% of added capacity came from renewable sources. New capacity from nuclear, coal and oil will continue to decline. Looks like our green energy future may be closer than we think.

generating capacity

It was quite a year for renewable energy. 2015 set the record for new electrical generation placed in service from solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal and biomass according to the latest Energy Infrastructure Update report released by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Office of Energy Projects. Of the 16,485 megawatts (MW) of new generating capacity in 2015, 63.85 percent, nearly two-thirds, came from renewable sources.

Wind capacity tops 2015

Wind energy was the largest source of new capacity last year, with 69 new “units” of wind providing 7,977MW of new generating capacity, nearly half the annual total. By contract 50 new units of natural gas brought 5,942 MW of new capacity to the grid, about a third less than for wind.

238 new units of solar energy put 2,042 MW capacity online, 305 MW came from biomass, 153 MW from hydropower and 2 geothermal units brought 48 MW of new generating capacity.

Read the rest at TheEnergyCollective.com

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