US adds 2.5 GW of wind, solar capacity in H1 2015

Wind farm in Idaho. Author: Blatant Views. License: Creative Commons, Attribution 2.0 Generic

The US added 1,969 MW of wind and 549 MW of solar power generation capacity in the first half (H1) of 2015, with these two source accounting for 65% of all new capacity put online over the period.

The country now has 67,820 MW of operational wind farms, newly released figures by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) show. The H1 2015 wind additions represented a 122.7% jump in year-on-year terms. That growth was expected as more than 12,700 MW of wind farms were under construction at the start of 2015, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).

The US also reached 12,490 MW of solar capacity as of mid-2015. The volume put on stream in H1 2015 was down by 61% on the year.

The table below shows the new in-service power capacity for the US’ main energy sources in H1 2015.

Primary Fuel Type	Total installed capacity	New capacity
Primary Fuel Type	Total installed capacity	H1 2015	H1 2014
Coal	311.7 GW	3 MW	0 MW
Natural gas	495.5 GW	1,173 MW	2,835 MW
Nuclear	106.9 GW	0 MW	0 MW
Water	100 GW	21 MW	144 MW
Wind	67.8 GW	1,969 MW	884 MW
Oil	45 GW	0 MW	18 MW
Biomass	16.3 GW	128 MW	137 MW
Solar	12.5 GW	549 MW	1,404 MW
Total	1,161.4 GW	3,888 MW	5,532 MW