According to the latest issue of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) monthly "Energy Infrastructure Update" (with data through November 30, 2016), renewable energy accounted for the majority (50.5%) of new U.S. electrical generation put into service during the first eleven months of 2016.
 
Combined, newly installed capacity from renewable sources (i.e., biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, wind) totaled 9,655-MW, surpassing that from natural gas (8,109-MW), nuclear power (1,270-MW), coal (45-MW), and oil (33-MW) combined. **
 
In the month of November alone, solar and wind combined to provide 946-MW -- 158 times more than that from natural gas (just 6-MW).
 
Year-to-date, new solar generating capacity totals 5,717-MW while new wind generating capacity totals 3,533-MW. There are also 314-MW of new hydropower capacity and 91-MW of new biomass capacity but no new geothermal steam capacity thus far in 2016.
 
The rapid growth of renewables -- particularly solar and wind -- has resulted their seizing an ever-growing share of the nation's total generating capacity. Five years ago, renewable sources cumulatively accounted for slightly over 14% of total available installed generating capacity; now they provide almost 19% (18.69%): hydropower - 8.53%, wind- 6.58%, solar - 1.84%, biomass - 1.41%, and geothermal - 0.33%.
 
Each of the non-hydro renewables has grown during the past half-decade with solar's share of the nation's generating capacity now more than twelve times greater than in November 2011.
 
By comparison, oil is now only 3.81%, nuclear power is 9.16%, and coal is 24.77% -- shares of the total that are all lower than five years ago (4.62%, 9.45%, and 29.95% respectively). Only natural gas has experienced modest growth and that is from 41.67% in 2011 to 43.40% today.
 
"FERC's latest data should be a wake-up call to the new Congress and the incoming Trump Administration," noted Ken Bossong, Executive Director of the SUN DAY Campaign. "Don't mess with a winning hand - continue to support solar, wind, and other renewables!" 
 
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission released its most recent 6-page "Energy Infrastructure Update," with data for November 2016, on January 5, 2017. See the tables titled "New Generation In-Service (New Build and Expansion)" and "Total Available Installed Generating Capacity" at: https://www.ferc.gov/legal/staff-reports/2016/nov-energy-infrastructure.pdf.  FERC data for November 2011 can be found at: https://www.ferc.gov/legal/staff-reports/11-11-energy-infrastructure.pdf

** Note that generating capacity is not the same as actual generation. Electrical production per MW of available capacity (i.e., capacity factor) for renewables is often lower than that for fossil fuels and nuclear power. As noted, the total installed operating generating capacity provided by renewables in 2016 is now about 18.7% of the nation's total whereas actual electrical generation from renewables year-to-date (according to the latest U.S. Energy Information Administration figures) is roughly 15.1%; however, both of these figures understate renewables' actual contribution because neither EIA nor FERC fully accounts for all electricity generated by smaller-scale, distributed renewable energy sources.
 
The SUN DAY Campaign is a non-profit research and educational organization founded in 1992 to aggressively promote sustainable energy technologies as cost-effective alternatives to nuclear power and fossil fuels.