25% of electricity in the United States will be renewable in 3 years

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission states in its latest report how important renewables will be to electricity generation capacity in the United States

The United States’ electricity generation capacity will be linked to the production of and investment in renewable energy. This is according to the report «Energy infrastructure upgrade“, issued by the US regulatory body in this field, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which states that 25% of the country’s electricity production capacity will be renewable in just 3 years.

Saying report It maintains that the additions of wind power, including those decommissioning equipment whose useful life will end in this three-year period, will represent a net increase of 26,167 MW; solar power will represent a growth of 22,593 MW; and natural gas will reach 21,822 MW.

In the coming years, the combined addition of wind and solar power will far exceed that of gas. This means that the combined capacity of all renewables (those already mentioned, along with biomass, geothermal, and hydroelectric power, which will experience growth of 1,903 MW, 178 MW, and 92 MW, respectively) will represent almost 51 GW of new electricity capacity in the United States. In contrast, energy sources with the greatest impact on the climate, such as natural gas, coal, hydrocarbons, and nuclear power, will see their share of the energy mix decrease by 19,082 MW, 3,060 MW, and 1,369 MW, respectively. Thus, by the spring of 2023, green energy will account for a quarter of the nation’s total electricity capacity.

And that’s becauseRenewable energy has gained prominence in recent years in the United States.Thus, during the first two months of this tumultuous year, 2020, 38 new solar power plants, totaling nearly 1 GW of electrical capacity, were connected to the power grids of Americans. In addition, as the report itself indicates, four wind farms with a capacity of 303 MW and three small hydroelectric power units of 13 MW each were also added. These green energy additions account for 85.7% of all new electricity generation facilities installed in the country up to that point.

In contrast, the remaining 14.3% of installed energy capacity was natural gas, with no capacity from coal, oil, nuclear power, biomass, or geothermal energy. A true revolution in the United States’ electricity sector.

These figures must be viewed within the context of the current share of these energy sources in the country’s overall capacity. Currently, 22.6% of the installed electricity capacity in the US is renewable. This is still far from the leading energy source, natural gas, which accounts for 44.6% of the total; the second largest, coal, with 20.6%; and ahead of nuclear power, which represents 8.84% of the total. Wind and solar power generation capacity represents 12.58% of the total.

Solar energy, more a reality than a trend

Exactly 3 years ago we published an article called “What is the ceiling for solar energy in the US?“After learning that in 2016 the North American country installed 14.6 GW of solar energy. At that time, the installation of this type of technology exceeded its record figures of the previous year by 95%, and was consolidated as the main investment in electricity generation capacity in the country, going from 4% in 2010 to 39% in 2016. Thus, the United States added 10.8 GW of solar energy in 2017 and 10.6 GW in 2018.”