Originally Posted By: SHOZ
Renewables Now Account for Nearly One-Fifth of Total US Generating Capacity
I think the key is here:
Quote:
The rapid growth of renewables — particularly solar and wind — resulted in their seizing an ever-growing share of the nation's total generating capacity. Five years ago, renewable sources cumulatively accounted for 14.26 percent of total available installed generating capacity; now they provide almost one-fifth (19.17 percent):
hydropower, 8.50 percent; wind, 6.92 percent; solar, 2 percent; biomass, 1.42 percent; and geothermal, 0.33 percent.
This was already a source (hydro) and of the bunch, the only one installed in any significant capacity that can provide baseload.
Also, it seems the real love affair is with Natural Gas:
Quote:
Each of the non-hydro renewables has grown during the past half-decade and their combined capacity (10.67 percent) is now greater than that of nuclear power (9.00 percent) and nearly three times that of oil (3.79 percent).
By comparison, the shares of the nation's energy capacity provided by oil, nuclear power, and coal have all declined. Today, oil's share is only 3.79 percent, nuclear power is 9 percent, and coal is 24.65 percent — five years ago, they were 4.61 percent, 9.44 percent, and 29.91 percent, respectively.
Only natural gas has experienced modest growth and that is from 41.6 percent in 2011 to 43.23 percent today.
Which makes up the largest single generator in the mix (seconded by coal).
What would be really nice is if they provided a nice plot of generation mix coupled with actual output data like the IESO here in Ontario. For example, Nuclear makes up 36% of our generating mix, but produces 61% of our power. Wind makes up 11% of our generating mix but produces 6% of our power.
Citing installed capacity without including output paints an overly rosy picture, but I've said that about this source when you've quoted them before. "Renewableenergyworld" is not going to provide unbiased information.