Renewable energies reach historic number by making 15 % of the U.S. energy market. Albeit only 1.4 % of these renewables are placed in the solar sector, it still means a 40 % increase from 2015.

The recent development on the U.S. energy sector is rosy for renewables, as their share of the whole energy market has reached a historic 15 % in the first nine months of 2016. This information has been officially released by the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy and confirms an all time success – in fact, this is the highest level of renewables in 30 years.

Among the renewables, the largest source continues to be hydroelectric dams, while non-hydro sources make up 8.5 %. Meanwhile, solars have reached a remarkable success of their own: both distributed and utility-scale solar power together form 1.4 % of the U.S. renewable energy market. This may sound little at first, but is a 41% increase compared to 2015.

Global developments differ

As a result of these recent developments, the U.S. have become the second-largest solar market in 2016, thus beating Japan in the aim for this place. However, the U.S. still have a smaller percentage or solar energy than Japan, most Western European nations and some Latin American countries.

Globally, Honduras will likely beat Italy (whose solar proportion was almost 10 % last year) as the nation with the highest portion of electricity gained from solars, a result achieved through the installation of 388 MW of solar last year. Germany, a prior leader, only reached a proportion of 6 % in 2015.

Further increase of solar expected in the U.S.

At the time being, wind energy is the leading renewable power source. It made up 4.3 % of all energy in the U.S. in the first nine months of this year. Due to an extension of the federal Production Tax Credit for wind, the wind market will likely remain strong, but other sectors are growing as well.

For the coming years, a further increase is expected for the solar power’s proportion in the U.S.. Not only are the U.S. expected to install a further 13 – 14 GW of solar power in 2016, but there will also be an additional 13 GW installed in 2017. As a result, the total capacity of solar will double in a mere two years – a truly remarkable development.

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