NEW ENERGY KEEPS GROWING

Solar, natural gas, wind make up most 2016 generation additions

Tim Shear and Sara Hoff, March 1, 2016 (U.S. Energy Information Administration)

“Electric generating facilities expect to add more than 26 gigawatts (GW) of utility-scale generating capacity to the power grid during 2016. Most of these additions come from three resources: solar (9.5 GW), natural gas (8.0 GW), and wind (6.8 GW), which together make up 93% of total additions…[It would be] the first year in which utility-scale solar additions exceed additions from any other single energy source…[Planned utility-scale solar additions] is substantially higher than the 3.1 GW of solar added in 2015 and would be more than the total solar installations for the past three years combined (9.4 GW during 2013-15)…Most capacity additions over the past 20 years have been natural gas-fired units. About 8 GW is expected to be added this year, slightly above the 7.8 GW average annual additions over the previous five years…Additions of wind capacity are expected to be slightly lower than in 2015 [because of the longer term certainty provided by the just approved 5-year extension of the production tax credit…” click here for more

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