CONSULTING

hydro renewables power generation and the fourth most important for installed capacity for
wind. 356
Further increases in the growth in renewables are expected in the coming decade; in 2014 a 2022
target of 175 GW of renewable-based power capacity (excluding large hydropower) was
announced. Of this total, 100 GW is to be solar (compared to 731 MW in 2014), 60 GW wind
(compared to 22.4 GW in 2014), 10 GW biomass-based power, and 5 GW small hydropower
projects.
In the United States, power demand remained largely static in 2015 as it has for the past
decade, however underlying this are significant changes in the supply mix. In 2007, the historic
peak for consumption, coal accounted for 48 percent of the power mix, but since coal’s power
production has fallen by nearly 500 TWh, to 1,356 TWh in 2015 or just 33 percent of the total. The
largest part of this decline has been met by the increased use of natural gas—essentially shale
gas—producing an additional 347 TWh compared to 2007 and equaling the share of coal for the
first time in 2015. However, non-hydro renewables, have also grown considerably, increasing by
143 TWh, providing 2.7 percent in 2007 and 7.9 percent in 2015. Over the same period the output
from the country’s nuclear power plants remained approximately constant. With the current rate
of increase of renewables and flat or falling production from nuclear power, by the early part of
the next decade renewables, including hydro-power, are likely to exceed production from nuclear
power. 357
In 2015, a total of 16 GW of new renewable capacity was installed, of which 8.5 GW was wind and
7.3 GW was solar PV 358 , the majority of new installed capacity with little change in the nuclear
sector. This trend is likely to continue as the U.S. Clean Power Plan will regulate the country’s
power sector, aiming to cut emissions by 32 percent relative to 2005 levels by 2030, accelerating
the current trends of closure of coal and the installation of solar and wind and as we have seen in
the country section, little new construction of nuclear and a likely acceleration of the closure rate
of reactors in unregulated power markets.
356 REN 21, “Renewables 2016 Global Status Report”, Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21 st
Century, see www.ren21.net/GSR-2016-Report-Full-report-EN, accessed 30 June 2016.
357 US EIA, “Annual Energy Outlook 2016”, US Energy Information Administration, 17 May 2016.
358 BNEF, “2016 Sustainable Energy in America Fact book“, Business Council for Sustainable Energy, 2016.
Mycle Schneider, Antony Froggatt et al. 114 World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2016