US Renewables capacity now exceeds coal's

US wind resources.  Source: Wikipedia

The collapse in US coal use is driven partly by the increased take-up of gas and partly by the growth of renewables, especially in the "wind corridor" which runs north from Texas to North Dakota and Wisconsin.  The steady rise in new wind and solar farms across the country has now led to renewables capacity exceeding (just) capacity of coal-power stations.

From CNN:

America's coal industry has already been left in the dust by natural gas. Now it's under immense pressure from the renewable energy boom.

The renewable energy sector had slightly more installed capacity than coal in April, according to a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission report.

That means US power plants can produce more energy from clean sources than coal for the first time in history, according to the SUN DAY Campaign, a nonprofit research group supporting sustainable energy. The breakthrough reflects the plunging cost of solar and wind as well as heightened environmental concern about coal.

"Coal has no technology path," said Jeff McDermott, managing partner at Greentech Capital Advisors, a boutique investment bank focused on clean energy. "It's got nowhere to go but extinction."

The clean energy revolution is on the verge of a tipping point.

Also in April, the renewable energy sector was projected to have generated more electricity than coal, according to a separate report published by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. That transition was partially driven by seasonal issues.

At the same time, America has drastically cut back on its appetite for coal. Since peaking in 2008, US coal consumption has plunged 39% to the lowest level in 40 years, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

Power companies are increasingly relenting to pressure from customers and states to adopt cleaner energy.

Con Edison (ED), one of the largest investor-owned utilities, acquired solar and wind projects worth $2.1 billion last year. The company is now the second largest solar producer in North America.

Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy (XEL) has gone from a coal-first power company to one aiming to deliver zero-carbon electricity by 2050.

Renewables are even starting to put pressure on natural gas, which is a cleaner-burning fossil fuel.Wind and solar power generation scheduled to come online could displace up to 1.42 billion cubic feet per day of gas demand for electric power, according to a report published on Monday by energy analytics company Drillinginfo.

"Renewables are going to get cheaper and cheaper and cheaper. We're not done," said McDermott.

[Read more here]


Capacity isn't the same as output.  Wind and solar output is 20 to 50% (offshore wind) of nameplate capacity.  Even though renewables output beat coal output in April, it will be a few years before that happens for the year as a whole.  As coal power stations are shuttered and more renewables are rolled out, though, it seems inevitable that that will happen.