4C Offshore Empowering Intelligence

Renewables second U.S. electricity source says US Energy Information Administration

4C Offshore | Chris Anderson
By: Chris Anderson 28/07/2021 Principal contributor: Mickey Francis
In 2020, renewable energy sources (including wind, hydroelectric, solar, biomass, and geothermal energy) generated a record 834 billion kilowatthours (kWh) of electricity, or about 21% of all the electricity generated in the United States. Only natural gas (1,617 billion kWh) produced more electricity than renewables in the United States in 2020.

Renewables surpassed both
nuclear (790 billion kWh) and coal (774 billion kWh) for the first time on record. This outcome in 2020 was due mostly to significantly less coal use in U.S. electricity generation and steadily increased use of wind and solar.

Coal was the largest source of electricity in the United States until 2016, and 2020 was the first year that more electricity was generated by renewables and by nuclear power than by coal (according to our data series that dates back to 1949). Nuclear electric power declined 2% from 2019 to 2020 because several nuclear power plants retired and other nuclear plants experienced slightly more maintenance-related outages.

According to the  US Energy Information Administration they expect coal-fired electricity generation to increase in the United States during 2021 as natural gas prices continue to rise and as coal becomes more economically competitive. Based on forecasts in their  Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO),  the US Energy Information Administration expect coal-fired electricity generation in all sectors in 2021 to increase 18% from 2020 levels before falling 2% in 2022. They go on to say that they expect U.S. renewable generation across all sectors to increase 7% in 2021 and 10% in 2022. As a result, they forecast coal will be the second-most prevalent electricity source in 2021, and renewables will be the second-most prevalent source in 2022. This is in conjunction with an  expectation that  nuclear electric power shall decline 2% in 2021 and 3% in 2022 as operators retire several generators.





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