Last week’s Energy Dept. report: rooftop solar generated less than a half percent of residential consumption in Q1 2016.
Before the Memorial Day weekend, the Energy Department reported on the first quarter, January through March 2016.
Residential rooftop solar across the nation generated 1.6 million megawatt-hours in Q1. Residential customers consumed 346.8 million megawatt-hours of grid electricity.
So solar on the roofs of homes covered a half percent of homes' consumption of electricity.
Homes' consumption was down by 31.4 million megawatt-hours, compared with the prior year, Q1 2015. But this eight percent drop had little to do with solar trends.
Rooftop solar generation increased impressively from Q1 2015 to Q1 2016. But the increase was barely 0.6 million megawatt-hours (551 thousand megawatt-hours).
Less than a fiftieth of the drop in homes' consumption can therefore be explained by the rooftop solar increase.
Mild weather in Q1 and the improving efficiency of electrical machines, appliances and devices likely explain virtually all the drop in consumption.
Overall, the grid generated 971.1 million megawatt-hours in the first quarter. Residential rooftop solar generation equaled less than two-tenths of a percent, while utility-scale solar generation equaled seven-tenths of a percent.
Utility-scale wind equaled over six percent of all electricity generation in Q1. It produced 37 times as much zero-emission power as rooftop solar.
Nuclear equaled 21 percent of all electricity generation in Q1. So it produced 128 times as much zero-emission power as rooftop solar.
Notably, coal equaled less than 29 percent of all electricity generation in Q1. Carbon dioxide emissions from the grid are rapidly falling, since emissions are closely tied to coal's share of total generation.
Number-crunching courtesy of Public Utilities Fortnightly. What's our favorite number? Why, naturally, it's the number 87. For PUF was founded 87 years ago. And a subscription to PUF costs only 287 bucks.
Steve Mitnick, Editor-in-Chief, Public Utilities Fortnightly
E-mail me: mitnick@fortnightly.com
