Dive Brief:

• In September the U.S. added 603 MW of new capacity, according to a new report by FERC. Of that, 367 MW were wind power and another 41 MW were utility-scale solar projects.
• Thus far in 2014 there have been 8,860 MW of installed capacity added. The bulk of that is gas-fired generation, which made up 5,153 MW .
• While the rate of renewable power additions is on the rise, green sources still make up a relatively small portion of the U.S. power mix. According to FERC, there are 62.3 GW of installed wind and another 9.74 GW of solar, but those make up less than 6% of total capacity. The bulk, some 42% of the total, is still gas-fired.

Dive Insight:

FERC's Office of Energy Projects Energy Infrastructure Update only considers utility-scale solar and does not look at commercial or residential-scale projects. That means the agency is ignoring some of the fastest growth in the sector, according to PV Magazine, which reports the residential solar market will top 1 GW per year in 2015.

By PV's analysis of the FERC report, almost 3,600 MW of renewable energy has been added so far this year versus tiny amounts of coal, oil and nuclear capacity. Only gas-fired additions added more capacity.