Renewable power still has a ways to go before it can displace fossil fuels, but the efforts to boost green power generation are still making progress. According to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), renewable power made up most of the newly installed capacity so far this year.


According to “Energy Infrastructure Update,” released by FERC in October, renewables accounted for 60.2 percent of the new U.S. electricity generation capacity installed in the first three quarters of 2015. The cumulative installed capacity from Jan. 1–Sept. 30 was 7,276 megawatts (MW). That included 2,966 MW of new wind capacity, as well as 1,137 MW of solar, 205 MW of biomass, 45 MW of geothermal steam, and 27 MW of hydropower. Natural-gas-generation capacity grew by 2,884 MW in the same period.


Wind power accounted for 40.76 percent of the total. Wind also surpassed all other sources for new capacity in the month of September with 448 MW. Natural gas was second at 346 MW, and solar was third with 20 MW of new capacity.


While the new capacity measure is important, it does not tell the entire story. Renewables still make up a relatively small fraction of the total mix. FERC puts renewables at 17.4 percent of the total installed U.S. generating capacity. That includes 9 percent hydro, 5.91 percent wind, 1.43 percent biomass, 1.13 percent solar, and 0.34 percent geothermal steam. No new nuclear capacity was added in 2015; only 9 MW of oil and 3 MW of coal were added.


According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), renewables’ share of actual net generation was slightly less than the capacity installed, at only 13.6 percent of the total net generation.


Proponents argue that these numbers are not entirely accurate because they do not reflect the total amount of distributed generation, such as rooftop solar, which is estimated at about 45 percent of installed solar capacity.