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Renewables Made Up 92% of New U.S. Electrical Generating Capacity for Q1 by Staff Clean Edge News, April 21, 2014

According to the latest "Energy Infrastructure Update" report from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's Office of Energy Projects, solar, wind, and hydropower provided 84.5% of new installed U.S. electrical generating capacity for the month of March. Nine "units" of solar provided 151 MW while one new unit of wind provided 93 MW and one new unit of hydropower provided 1 MW.

By comparison, one new unit of natural gas provided 45 MW while no new capacity was provided by coal, oil, or nuclear power. Thus, for the month, renewables provided more than five times the amount of new capacity from fossil fuels or nuclear power.

For the first three months of 2014, renewable energy sources (i.e., biomass, geothermal, solar, water, wind) accounted for 92.1% of the 1,150 MW of new domestic electrical generating installed. This was comprised of solar (584 MW), wind (427 MW), geothermal steam (30 MW), biomass (10 MW), and water (8 MW).

For the quarter, coal, oil, and nuclear provided no new capacity, while 90 MW of natural gas and 1 MW of "other" provided the balance.

Renewable energy sources, including hydropower, now account for 16.3% of total installed U.S. operating generating capacity: water - 8.58%, wind - 5.27%, biomass - 1.37%, solar - 0.75%, and geothermal steam - 0.33%. This is more than nuclear (9.25%) and oil (4.04%) combined.