Wind, solar bring 98% of Jan-Feb large capacity additions in US

Total of 1,568 MW of large-scale wind and 565 MW of large-scale solar power capacity became operational in the US in January and February 2018, according to a report by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

The only other source that added some capacity in the period, 40 MW to be exact, was natural gas. The start of the year was slow for power capacity additions, with new generation in-service arriving at 2,173 MW, as compared to January-February 2017 when 4,190 MW went online.

Some of the bigger renewable energy projects completed in the two months were the 170-MW Beaver Creek wind park and 168-MW Prairie Wind facility, both in Iowa.

The table contains details on new and cumulative capacity across the main sources of energy in the US, as well as proposed additions and retirements by March 2021, as disclosed by FERC.

The full FERC report is available at https://www.ferc.gov/legal/staff-reports/2018/feb-energy-infrastructure.pdf.

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