Renewables = 20.4% of US Electricity Generation
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.
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.
In the first 3 quarters of 2020, while renewable energy accounted for 70% of new power capacity in the country, it still accounted for just 20.4% of total electricity generation in those 9 months.
Electricity from coal power plants has declined from 26.9% of US electricity generation in the first 7 months of 2018 to 17.7% of US electricity in the first 7 months of 2020. Furthermore, that’s down from 33% in 2015, 39% in 2014, 45% in 2010, and 50% in 2005.
Following up on our report on US power capacity additions in the first half of 2020, this article covers electricity generation in the first half of 2020. It splits out electricity generation by source. It also compares those numbers to the same electricity generation split in the first half of 2019 and in the first half of 2018.
The SUN DAY Campaign recently reported that 11% of US electricity generation in the months of January and February was from wind and solar power.
“Small-scale solar photovoltaics (e.g., rooftop solar systems) alone grew by 19.22% YTD. Compared to all other energy sources, solar-generated electricity has enjoyed the fastest growth rate thus far in 2019.” Natural gas generation grew by 6.71%, nuclear energy generation grew by 0.8%, and coal-generated electricity generation declined by 14.46%.
To complement our revival of US electricity capacity reports, here’s a new report on US electricity generation.
As with the capacity report, things are not looking too bright. There’s still a lot of grey — in the bar charts below, in the skies near fossil fuel power plants, and in the human and planetary outlook based on how slowly we are cutting fossil fuel electricity generation.
It’s time for CleanTechnica‘s quarterly electricity report, which now includes both a capacity report and a generation report (we used to publish these separately). The grid continues to get cleaner and cleaner. Renewable energy accounts for a large percentage of new electricity generation capacity quarter after quarter in the United States, while old coal power … [continued]
For various reasons, I’ve decided to start doing our US electricity generation capacity reports and US electricity generation reports once a quarter (instead of monthly), and I’ve also decided to start combining them. So, below is our update on US electricity generation capacity in Q1 2016 (with a new feature — comparing the quarter … [continued]
US wind and solar electricity generation grew by 20,659 MWh in 2015, compared to the full year 2014. That’s compared to fossil fuel electricity generation dropping by 18,041 MWh. Unfortunately, in part due to terrible drought, hydroelectricity generation dropped 8,199 MWh.