A Milestone in Renewable Energy

In January 2013, something remarkable happened. According to that month’s Energy Infrastructure Update produced by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the United States installed a little more than 1,200 megawatts of electricity generating capacity in the opening month of this year – all from renewable sources. Compared to the same month last year – when almost 75 percent of the 1,693 megawatts installed came from gas, oil and coal – every last watt was attributable to a blend of solar, wind and biomass.

At Frontier Group we’ve long highlighted the enormous potential of – and need for – renewable energy to be a major part of a national strategy to curb the United States’ contribution to global warming, improve public health, and support a greener economy in the 21st century. Renewable energy solutions are possible in every part of the country: from Oregon (with more solar potential than global solar leader Germany) to Maryland (with enough offshore wind potential to supply two-thirds of the state’s annual power consumption).

January’s new installations bore this out. Stretching from Massachusetts to California, Michigan to Texas, the new wind, solar and biomass facilities brought online spanned the United States.

But while it’s great to celebrate a single month in which renewable energy dominated, the reality is that, to achieve a clean energy future and address the threat of global warming, we need to make sure that virtually all our new energy, every single month, is coming from renewable sources.

America is now implementing renewable energy at a speed that would have been inconceivable just a decade ago. We have come a long way. But it will take strong policies from Capitol Hill to city hall – as well as investments in infrastructure – to make months like January the norm, rather than the exception.