By Editors of Power Engineering

A new study from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, as reported by the SUN DAY Campaign, revealed 19.35 percent of all electrical generation in the United States comes from renewable sources.

That total included hydropower at 8.67 percent of total generation, followed by wind at 7.1 percent, biomass at 1.64 percent, solar at 1.47 percent and geothermal at 0.47 percent.

The total share produced by renewables greatly exceeded the EIA’s previous predictions. Its 2012 Annual Energy Outlook report predicted renewable generation would reach 15 percent of all electrical generation in 2035.

Wind generation has now reached 84.59 GW with utility-scale solar at 25.84 percent. The 2012 EIA report predicted wind would reach 70 GW and solar would reach 24 GW by 2035.

“Not only has renewable energy’s share of total domestic electrical generation nearly doubled in the past seven years, it has reached a level of output that EIA – just five years ago – did not anticipate happening for another four decades,” said Ken Bossong, executive director of the SUN DAY Campaign. “While one might conclude that EIA’s methodology is seriously flawed, it is also safe to say that renewables – especially solar and wind – by now providing almost one-fifth of the nation’s electrical production, are vastly exceeding expectations and breaking records at an astonishing pace.”

Last year, generation from renewable resources provided 17.23 percent of total generation.

The SUN DAY Campaign was founded to aggressively promote renewable energy as alternatives to nuclear power and fossil fuels.