US Electricity From Wind Beat Hydro For 1st Time Ever In November March 26th, 2015 by Zachary Shaha

[ScienceRocks]

US Electricity From Wind Beat Hydro For 1st Time Ever In November
March 26th, 2015 by Zachary Shahan

The US Energy Information Administration now has electricity generation figures up for December 2014, but one of our readers, Christopher Patusky, actually spotted a very interesting milestone from November that I think was widely missed: wind power produced more electricity than hydropower for the month as a whole… for the first time in history.

Originally, the numbers from the EIA showed that wind power produced 18,997 GWh of electricity, and hydro 18,647 GWh (as in my charts below). However, the EIA report for December shows that wind hit 19,055 GWh and hydro 18,712 GWh in November. Either way, wind power beat hydropower, and for the first calendar month in history.

That was also wind power’s biggest month ever in the US.

Wind didn’t beat hydro for the full year of course, but Christopher brought up the possibility of it doing so in 2015 or 2016, with both of us thinking that the annual crossover is more likely to happen in 2016.

As regular CleanTechnica readers must know, wind power capacity has been growing at a good clip. In November, it accounted for 31% of new US power capacity. It then accounted for 33% of new capacity in December, and it accounted for 55% of new capacity in January 2015. The way the boom-and-bust tax credit for wind power has been structured in the past few years, 2015 and 2016 should be big years for wind power capacity growth. It’ll be fun to see wind rising to new heights!

This is huge news!!! Wind will keep on increasing and it has at least 100 times the resources to move into.

 

[Syriusly]

US Electricity From Wind Beat Hydro For 1st Time Ever In November
March 26th, 2015 by Zachary Shahan

The US Energy Information Administration now has electricity generation figures up for December 2014, but one of our readers, Christopher Patusky, actually spotted a very interesting milestone from November that I think was widely missed: wind power produced more electricity than hydropower for the month as a whole… for the first time in history.

Originally, the numbers from the EIA showed that wind power produced 18,997 GWh of electricity, and hydro 18,647 GWh (as in my charts below). However, the EIA report for December shows that wind hit 19,055 GWh and hydro 18,712 GWh in November. Either way, wind power beat hydropower, and for the first calendar month in history.

That was also wind power’s biggest month ever in the US.

Wind didn’t beat hydro for the full year of course, but Christopher brought up the possibility of it doing so in 2015 or 2016, with both of us thinking that the annual crossover is more likely to happen in 2016.

As regular CleanTechnica readers must know, wind power capacity has been growing at a good clip. In November, it accounted for 31% of new US power capacity. It then accounted for 33% of new capacity in December, and it accounted for 55% of new capacity in January 2015. The way the boom-and-bust tax credit for wind power has been structured in the past few years, 2015 and 2016 should be big years for wind power capacity growth. It’ll be fun to see wind rising to new heights!

This is huge news!!! Wind will keep on increasing and it has at least 100 times the resources to move into.

Tell me- you are just posting this to push Elektra's buttons right?

Just to see her come here to tell us how horrible, horrible wind power is?

Anyway- is it because windpower generation is up? Or because hydropower is down?

 

[ScienceRocks]

A little bit of both. Wind added some in 2014 and is expected to have a better year this year. On the otherhand, California didn't help hydro.

 

[whitehall]

Bragging about a windy month? The average lifespan for a wind turbine is 20 years and they are expensive to buy and maintain and are subject to all sorts of damage from ice and component failure. Barry Hussein just signed an executive order that authorizes the wind turbine industry to kill (thousands? hundreds of thousands?) migratory birds including endangered species, eagles and condors and raptors for the next six years. How does that make PETA feel? The year energy stats are 265,373 hydro, 171,118 wind and a laughable 958 solar and 3,021 garbage. When are the feds going to stop subsidizing solar energy?

 

[Old Rocks]

Average lifespan of the generators in a coal fired plant is 20 years. And they cost far more in maintenance than does wind mills. And the damned things have poisoned whole rivers, and all that feeds on the creatures in those rivers.

Don't worry about the government subsidies for wind and solar, the economics of energy already has turned to renewables.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/24/b...-win-on-price-vs-conventional-fuels.html?_r=0

Those prices were made possible by generous subsidies that could soon diminish or expire, but recent analyses show that even without those subsidies, alternative energies can often compete with traditional sources.

In Texas, Austin Energy signed a deal this spring for 20 years of output from a solar farm at less than 5 cents a kilowatt-hour. In September, the Grand River Dam Authority in Oklahoma announced its approval of a new agreement to buy power from a new wind farm expected to be completed next year. Grand River estimated the deal would save its customers roughly $50 million from the project.

And, also in Oklahoma, American Electric Power ended up tripling the amount of wind power it had originally sought after seeing how low the bids came in last year.

“Wind was on sale — it was a Blue Light Special,” said Jay Godfrey, managing director of renewable energy for the company. He noted that Oklahoma, unlike many states, did not require utilities to buy power from renewable sources.

“We were doing it because it made sense for our ratepayers,” he said.

According to a study by the investment banking firm Lazard, the cost of utility-scale solar energy is as low as 5.6 cents a kilowatt-hour, and wind is as low as 1.4 cents. In comparison, natural gas comes at 6.1 cents a kilowatt-hour on the low end and coal at 6.6 cents. Without subsidies, the firm’s analysis shows, solar costs about 7.2 cents a kilowatt-hour at the low end, with wind at 3.7 cents.

 

[whitehall]

The cost of business sized solar projects is around $4.00 per watt and they are gigantic ugly panels that instantly sizzle any bird, insect or small mammal that comes in contact with the panels. Barry Hussein issued an order that authorized the windmill industry to kill as many migratory birds as they had to for the next six years. The mere possession of feathers from a protected bird would put a Native American (or anybody else) in the federal pen so windmill corporations can't even use the bodies of the magnificent creatures and they are thrown into incinerators or chipping machines without any records. Meanwhile PETA worries about elephants in circuses.

 

[Papageorgio]

US Electricity From Wind Beat Hydro For 1st Time Ever In November
March 26th, 2015 by Zachary Shahan

The US Energy Information Administration now has electricity generation figures up for December 2014, but one of our readers, Christopher Patusky, actually spotted a very interesting milestone from November that I think was widely missed: wind power produced more electricity than hydropower for the month as a whole… for the first time in history.

Originally, the numbers from the EIA showed that wind power produced 18,997 GWh of electricity, and hydro 18,647 GWh (as in my charts below). However, the EIA report for December shows that wind hit 19,055 GWh and hydro 18,712 GWh in November. Either way, wind power beat hydropower, and for the first calendar month in history.

That was also wind power’s biggest month ever in the US.

Wind didn’t beat hydro for the full year of course, but Christopher brought up the possibility of it doing so in 2015 or 2016, with both of us thinking that the annual crossover is more likely to happen in 2016.

As regular CleanTechnica readers must know, wind power capacity has been growing at a good clip. In November, it accounted for 31% of new US power capacity. It then accounted for 33% of new capacity in December, and it accounted for 55% of new capacity in January 2015. The way the boom-and-bust tax credit for wind power has been structured in the past few years, 2015 and 2016 should be big years for wind power capacity growth. It’ll be fun to see wind rising to new heights!

This is huge news!!! Wind will keep on increasing and it has at least 100 times the resources to move into.

Great! Hundreds of miles of unsightly windmills polluting our country side.

 

[whitehall]

Here's the deal, the lucrative global warming related federal grants to universities guarantee the continuation of the propaganda. It's a modern scientific axiom that whoever gets the grants will come up with whatever data is needed to keep the grants coming. When you factor in the loyalty to democrat administrations the fix is in. You almost gotta laugh that the combined anti-American research by the U.N. and the anti-American angry professors can't seem to prove that republican capitalists caused global warming and even when they have the argument surrounded it still don't make sense and liberal elites know it's a snow job (pardon the pun) to blame America and extort taxpayer resources.

 

[Old Rocks]

PV panels sizzle birds? Whitey, I don't know what you are smoking, but it is obvisiosly to strong for you.

 

[Correll]

"In November, it accounted for 31% of new US power capacity. It then accounted for 33% of new capacity in December, and it accounted for 55% of new capacity in January 2015. "


New construction? Wind is beating Hydro in new construction? Big deal.

What are the absolute percentages of power generated?

 

[ScienceRocks]

I support hydro big time. Hydro, wind, solar, geo-thermal and wave are all means of making sure we never run out of energy.

 

[Old Rocks]

Problem with hydro is that we have pretty much done all that we can do on a usable scale there. But we have vast amounts of potential in geothermal, wind, and solar.

 

[mamooth]

What are the absolute percentages of power generated?

What is U.S. electricity generation by energy source - FAQ - U.S. Energy Information Administration EIA
---
Major energy sources and percent share of total U.S. electricity generation in 2014:

• Coal = 39%
• Natural gas = 27%
• Nuclear = 19%
• Hydropower = 6%
• Other renewables = 7%
  • Biomass = 1.7%
  • Geothermal = 0.4%
  • Solar = 0.4%
  • Wind = 4.4%
• Petroleum = 1%
• Other gases < 1%

---

Since hydropower is steady, and wind power is increasing, wind power will soon be ahead of hydropower all the time.