Renewable energy for the first time is generating nearly as much electricity as the nation’s entire complement of 99 nuclear power plant reactors, a new report issued by a business group said on Thursday.
“The surge further establishes renewables’ critical role in the U.S. power mix — renewable technologies now contribute nearly as much electricity as the nuclear fleet,” said the report issued Thursday by the Business Council on Sustainable Energy and Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
The business council’s members include large natural gas and renewable energy trade groups, in addition to utility companies and large electronics manufacturer Johnson Controls.
The Sustainable Energy in America Factbook showed renewable energy made up 18 percent of the nation’s electricity production spurred on by two countervailing factors in the energy market: the reduction in natural gas-fired electricity and a rise in hydro-electric output in the West. Nuclear power provides around 19 percent of the U.S. total electricity output.
“Renewables achieved new heights partly due to a rebound in hydro as reservoir levels on the West Coast recovered after a severe, prolonged drought,” according to the report’s summary.
“At the same time, a chart-busting number of wind and solar projects built in 2016 had their first full year of operation in 2017, bolstering non-hydro renewable generation by 15%,” the report reads.
“Overall, renewables have contributed 55% of total build in the past 10 years,” the report continues. “Non-hydro renewables continued to represent the largest share of all U.S. new installations, hitting roughly 62% in 2017.”
Over 18 gigawatts of new additions came online in 2017, marking “another boom year for renewables build,” second only to 2016’s 22.7 gigawatts of new wind and solar. To provide some scale, 1 gigawatt is the combined power output of 500 utility-scale wind turbines and 4.6 million solar photovoltaic solar panels, according to the Energy Department.
The report points out that the “renewables’ rise” came on the heels of a 2-point decrease in natural gas-fired generation, from 34 to 32 percent from 2016 to 2017.
“Recovering gas prices, as well as a 1.7% year-on-year fall in total generation (including estimates for distributed solar), may have also contributed to the drop in natural gas-fired Generation,” according to the report summary.
Yet, despite the surge in solar and wind, fossil energy remained on top, with natural gas retaining its position as the “number one producer of U.S. power, as electricity production from coal slipped as well,” the report added.
The trend of natural gas-fired power plant domination will continue for years to come, with 2017 marking the best year for new natural gas power plant construction since 2005, according to the report.
Along with these changes in the electricity landscape, consumers spent less for electricity over the last year; this was brought on, in part, by the low cost of natural gas.
On the individual homeowner side, spending on electricity shrank to 1.3 percent of personal consumption last year, down from 1.4 percent in 2016, the report showed.
“Greater energy efficiency and the continued availability of cheap fuels likely contributed to keeping electricity costs a modest part of total consumer expenditures,” it said. “Spending on natural gas also remained muted, as consumers directed just under 0.4% of their outlays to this resource, similar to 2016 levels.”
On the industrial side, the U.S. “remains competitive globally” for manufacturers that require electricity 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it added.
“Industrial power prices in the U.S. are among the most affordable in the world,” the report showed.
“The U.S. remained competitive even as exchange rate fluctuations — and market reforms, in the case of Japan — brought down the dollar cost of energy for industrial consumers in China, Japan, and Mexico,” it said. “Canada, with its strong stock of cheap legacy hydro[power], hovered at or below U.S. prices.”
