The growth of renewables puts them on par with nuclear in the United States

Enlarge / A field of solar panels and wind turbines in the desert. Getty

On Monday, the Energy Information Agency released its annual figures for how the United States generated electricity in 2021. The year saw many changes as the country emerged from the pandemic, with coal, wind and solar. being able to see everything big jumps from the previous year. Meanwhile, widespread drought conditions in the West caused a significant drop in hydroelectric generation.

In the longer term, the big stories are the two renewable energies, wind and solar. Wind power only started producing more hydroelectricity three years ago, but it has now gained a considerable lead. And solar power has gone from a rounding error to 4% of annual production over the past decade and is poised for explosive growth.

living fossils

2021 marks the first increase in annual coal consumption since the Obama administration. Megawatts generated by coal increased by 16% over the previous year and accounted for just under 22% of total electricity generated. But this is probably a temporary change. No new coal-fired plants are planned in the United States, and over the past decade the number of coal-fired plants in operation has halved and coal has gone from 44% of electricity generation in the States States only 22%.

Compared to 2020, a variety of sources of electricity seen significant changes. John Timmer

During the same period, natural gas has gone from a quarter of electricity in the United States to just under 40%, as the number of megawatts produced from gas has increased by more than half. It has seen a slight decline over the past year (about 3%), which has happened two more times in the past decade.

The future of gas in the United States is difficult to predict. In many parts of the country, it is now being undermined by both wind and solar, although it still outperforms coal and nuclear. And exports of liquefied natural gas to Europe had already increased dramatically over the past five years, before the war in Ukraine increased the profits to be made. Still, the gas is unlikely to experience anything close to the fall of coal.

In addition to these main sources of generation, the United States has a handful of devices powered by diesel and other petroleum products. Together, all of these carbon-emitting sources accounted for just over 60% of U.S. electricity in 2021, up about 3% from the previous year, primarily due to increased use of coal. But ten years ago, carbon-emitting sources supplied more than 68% of the country's electricity. This decline is due to the growth of renewable sources.

Stuck in slow motion

Nuclear power has been in a strange stasis for the past decade. Ten years ago, it produced around 19% of the country's electricity. In 2021, it produced around 19% of the country's electricity. This is despite the fact that the total number of nuclear power plants has fallen by 17% over the past 10 years. Part of the difference is that closed plants were generally small and a new large reactor was completed at an existing plant.

In 2021, the three renewable sources have caught up their backwardness with nuclear and the continued rapprochement with coal as a percentage of total production. John Timmer

Nuclear remains the largest source of carbon-free electricity in the United States, and the Biden administration is