U.S green power increases 10.6%
WASHINGTON, DC, US, October 29, 2007.
The retail price of electricity in the United States increased by 9% last year, but GHG emissions declined due to increases in generation from wind, nuclear and hydroelectric facilities.
Non-hydro green power increased 10.6% and accounted for 2.4% of net generation in 2006, according to the Department of Energy’s ‘Electric Power Annual 2006.’ The greatest growth in renewables was in wind generation, which contributed 95% of the growth in green power as wind turbines generated 26.6 million MWh, 49.3% higher than in 2005.
Windfarms accounted 2,642 MW of new capacity added during 2006, “considerably above the levels of 2005,” the report notes. Texas and Washington combined for 1,318 MW, or half of all new wind capacity during the year, partly due to the Horse Hollow windfarm in Texas which is the largest wind facility in the country with a nameplate capacity of 736 MW.
The increase in wind capacity was stimulated in part by the production tax credit which was extended until December 31, but the growth in wind capacity is expected to continue, with 5,000 MW of planned windfarms proposed to start operation during this year. Texas is expected to add 1,400 MW of turbines, while Colorado, Illinois and Oregon are also expected to add a significant amount of turbines.
The generating capacity from non-hydro renewables increased 13.7% from 2005 to 2006, due primarily to this increase in wind generating capacity.
“The more recent emphasis placed on wind capacity, which is not a dispatchable resource, is reflected in the reduced performance of renewable resources in aggregate as measured by a composite capacity factor,” it explains. Non-hydro green power generation had a 45.6% capacity factor, compared with an average of 59.3% in 1999. The annual decline of capacity factor for renewables (relative to baseload generation) “is consistent with the natural replenishment but limited flow of renewable energy sources.”
The addition of wind capacity has surpassed all other forms of renewables and, between 2000 and 2006, net summer capability of wind increased from 2,302 MW to 11,351 MW, of which 2,631 MW was placed in service during 2006. During the same period, biomass generation increased from 3,591 MW to 7,858 MW and, by 2006, the near six-fold increase resulted in wind capacity exceeding the total amount of installed biomass capacity by 3,493 MW.
Coal, natural gas and nuclear have consistently provided between 84.6% and 88.6% of total net generation from 1995 to 2006, while non-hydro renewables contributed 2.4% of net electric generation. Since 1995, green power capacity, on average, has accounted for 2.1% of net generation and, during that time, 2001 was the only year in which net generation by renewables was less than 2.0% of total net generation.
Customers subscribing to green pricing programs across the U.S. have increased steadily between 2002 and 2005 but, in 2006 the single largest provider of green pricing services discontinued service in two states and forced almost 300,000 customers in green pricing programs to revert to standard service tariffs, predominantly in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The number of customers in these net metering programs has been steadily increasing, from 4,472 in 2002 to 34,000 in 2006. Seventy-five percent of these net metering customers are in California but, despite the growth of green pricing and net metering customers over the past few years, the total number of customers in both programs is still less than 1% of the national total, the report notes.
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