U.S. RENEWABLES NOW OUTPACE NUCLEAR POWER
IN ENERGY PRODUCTION AND ELECTRICAL CAPACITY
*For Release: Wednesday - October 5, 2016*
**
*Washington DC*– Two new reports from the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC) and the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)
confirm that nuclear power is rapidly losing the race with renewable
energy sources.
EIA's latest "Monthly Energy Review" (with data for the first half of
2016) notes that during the first six months of this year, renewable
sources (i.e., biofuels, biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, and
wind) accounted for 5.242 quadrillion Btus (quads) of domestic energy
production. This includes thermal, liquid, and electrical forms of
energy. By comparison, nuclear power provided only 4.188 quads. That is,
renewables outpaced nuclear by more than 25%. [1]
Meanwhile, FERC's latest "Energy Infrastructure Update" (with data
through the end of August 2016), states that the total available
installed generating capacity in the U.S. from the combination of
utility-scale (i.e., greater than 1-MW) hydropower, wind, solar,
biomass, and geothermal has grown to 215.82 gigawatts (GW) or 18.39% of
total generating capacity. Nuclear power's installed capacity is
only107.06 GW or 9.12% of the total. Thus, renewable energy generating
capacity is now more than double that of nuclear. [2]
However, actual electrical generation by nuclear plants for the first
seven months of 2016 is 19.9% of total generation. That is still higher
than that provided by renewable sources which contributed 15.8% (a
figure which does not include electricity produced by distributed
renewables such as rooftop solar). [3]
But while nuclear power's share of net electrical generation has
remained essentially flat over the past decade -- e.g., it was 19.4% in
2006, renewable energy's share is growing rapidly -- increasing from
9.5% ten years ago to 15.8% today [4] -- with EIA forecasting continued
strong growth in the years ahead. [5]
"If renewable sources maintain their current growth rates, they could
fully eclipse nuclear in the trifecta of not only energy supply and
generating capacity but also electricity production within the next five
or six years ... or less," concluded Ken Bossong, Executive Director of
the SUN DAY Campaign.
# # # # # # #
[1] U.S. Energy Information Administration, "Monthly Energy Review,"
September 27, 2016
http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/pdf/sec1_3.pdf
<http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/pdf/sec1_3.pdf>
[2] Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, "Energy Infrastructure
Update," September 30, 2016
http://www.ferc.gov/legal/staff-reports/2016/aug-energy-infrastructure.pdf
<http://www.ferc.gov/legal/staff-reports/2016/aug-energy-infrastructure.pdf>
[3] U.S. Energy Information Administration, "Electric Power Monthly"(see
Table ES1.B), September 26, 2016 http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly
<http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly>
[4] Ibid. (see Table 1.1)
[5] U.S. Energy Information Administration, "Short-Term Energy Outlook,"
September 7, 2016 http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/report/renew_co2.cfm
<http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/report/renew_co2.cfm>
=======================
The SUN DAY Campaign is a non-profit research and educational
organization founded in 1992 to aggressively promote sustainable energy
technologies as cost-effective alternatives to nuclear power and fossil
fuels.
*Contact: Ken Bossong, 301-270-6477 <tel:301-270-6477> x.11 *
**
_______________________________________________
Sustainablelorgbiofuel mailing list
Sustainablelorgbiofuel@lists.sustainablelists.org
http://lists.eruditium.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel