Renewable energy sources including solar accounted for 49.10% of all new US electrical generating capacity installed in 2012 for a total of 12,956MW, according to the latest Energy Infrastructure Update report from theFederal Energy Regulatory Commission's Office of Energy Projects.
More than a quarter of that new capacity (25.29%, or 3,276MW) came on-line in the month of December 2012 alone.
Wind led the way in 2012 with 164 new units totaling 10,689MW followed by solar with 240 units totaling 1,476MW.
Biomass added 100 new units totaling 543MW, while geothermal steam and water each had 13 new units with installed capacities of 149MW and 99MW, respectively.
By comparison, for the full 12 months of 2012, new natural gas generation in service totaled 8,746MW (33.15%) followed by coal (4,510MW or 17.09%), nuclear (125MW or 0.47%), and oil (49MW or 0.19%).
New capacity from renewable energy sources in 2012 increased by 51.16% compared to 2011when those sources added 8,571MW.
In 2011, renewables accounted for 39.33% of all new in-service generation capacity.
Renewable sources now account for 15.40% of total installed US operating generating capacity: water at 8.47%, wind at 4.97%, biomass at 1.30%, solar at 0.34%, and geothermal at 0.32%. This is more than nuclear (9.24%) and oil (3.57%) combined.
