Large-scale solar in US expands by 7.75 GW in 2016

Feb 1 (Renewables Now) - The US put online 7.75 GW of large-scale solar power generation capacity in 2016, up by 120% over the previous year, while wind additions inched down by 5.6%.

The year to November was pretty slow for wind, when compared to 2015, but December saw a 3.66-GW jump in installed wind capacity. Together, wind and solar accounted for over 15.6 GW of newly operational power capacity last year.

The US also put in service 8.7 GW of natural gas-fired power plants and 1.27 GW of nuclear.

Details on new additions and total capacity at the end of 2016, as given by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), are available in the table. All capacity is in megawatts (MW).

Fuel type New in Dec 2016 New in 2016 New in 2015 Total at end-2016 Solar 1,861 7,748 3,521 23,700 Wind 3664 7865 8328 81870 Water 0 314 161 100590 Biomass 102 197 323 16780 Geothermal stream 0 0 67 3930 Nuclear 0 1270 305 106580 Natural gas 630 8689 6386 511740 Coal 0 45 6 291790 Oil 0 58 41 44850

The FERC energy infrastructure report is available at: https://www.ferc.gov/legal/staff-reports/2016/dec-energy-infrastructure.pdf.