Solar Industry
Capacity figures compiled by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) show that natural gas and solar are providing the vast majority of the nation’s new electricity generating resources. Natural gas-fired power plants accounted for just over 50% of new utility-scale generating capacity added in 2013. Solar provided nearly 22%, a jump up from less than 6% in 2012. Coal provided 11% and wind nearly 8%.
Almost half of all capacity added in 2013 was located in California. In total, a little over 13.5 GW of new capacity was added in 2013, less than half the capacity added in 2012.
Solar photovoltaic added 2,193 MW of capacity in 2013, continuing the trend of the past few years of strong growth. The EIA says the increase was helped in part by falling technology costs, as well as aggressive state renewable portfolio standards (RPS) and continued federal investment tax credits.
Nearly 75% of the PV capacity added was located in California, followed by roughly 10% in Arizona. The EIA did not include distributed generation capacity under 1 MW in these figures.
If you’d like to discuss energy issues, contact Court Rich, director of Rose Law Group’s Renewable Energy Department at crich@roselawgroup.com
