Renewables = 20.4% of US Electricity Generation

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In the first 10 months of 2020, renewable energy sources accounted for 20.4% of United States electricity generation. That’s up from 17.5% in the same time period in 2018.

Wind power got up to 8% of the electricity pie, up from 6.4% in January–October 2018. Solar power was up to 3.4% in 2020 in January–October 2020, compared to 2.3% in January–October 2018. Other renewable resources were more or less steady in that timeframe.

As renewable energy sources grew in prominence, so did natural gas, which went from 35.3% of US electricity generation to 40.6%, an even bigger climb than the growth in electricity from renewable energy.

Nuclear power also grew its share of the market a little bit, from 18.9% to 19.3%.

The major drop in share came from coal. Coal power declined from 27% of the electricity generation market in 2018 to 23.3% in January–October 2019 and then to 18.6% in January–October 2020.

For more on US electricity generation and US electricity capacity changes over time, see our previous US electricity generation and US electricity capacity reports.


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Zachary Shahan

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA], NIO [NIO], Xpeng [XPEV], Ford [F], ChargePoint [CHPT], Amazon [AMZN], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Lithium Americas [LAC], Albemarle Corporation [ALB], Nouveau Monde Graphite [NMGRF], Talon Metals [TLOFF], Arclight Clean Transition Corp [ACTC], and Starbucks [SBUX]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.

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