[OC] Wind- und Solarenergie erzeugten in den USA im ersten vollen Jahr seit Beginn der Aufzeichnungen mehr Strom als Kohle
Von Low_Ability4450
[OC] Wind- und Solarenergie erzeugten in den USA im ersten vollen Jahr seit Beginn der Aufzeichnungen mehr Strom als Kohle
Von Low_Ability4450
32 Kommentare
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Monthly Energy Review (Tables 7.2a and 10.6). Tool: Python / Matplotlib.
Shares are of total U.S. net electricity generation, all sectors. “Wind + solar” combines utility-scale wind and solar with small-scale (rooftop) solar PV; hydro is excluded to isolate the newer wind-and-solar buildout. 2025 data are preliminary.
The crossing : in 2024, wind + solar reached 17.2% versus coal’s 14.8% : it was the first full year they out-generated coal in the U.S. electricity mix. The gap was still present in 2025 preliminary data: 18.9% versus 16.3% even though coal share actually ticked back up from 2024.
Two readings => both defensible : one sees the renewables ascendant (wind + solar are now the 2nd electricity source and passed nuclear in 2025) ; the other notes that the natural gas is at roughly 40% of generation and so remains by far the dominant source and played a larger role in coal’s displacement over the past 35 years than wind and solar did. The chart is meant to support the two interpretations. Full data, methodology and interactive version: [https://eco3min.fr/en/wind-solar-vs-coal-us-electricity-mix/](https://eco3min.fr/en/wind-solar-vs-coal-us-electricity-mix/)
This is great, but that nuclear line is depressing.
Thank you for including the natural gas curve, which is often neglected.
Nuclear is so sad. Should have been the majority a long time ago. Wind and solar are the coward’s alternative to coal.
Oh we apparently don’t like nuclear here do we? If you’re scared of it please don’t procreate, you’re probably flat earthers too.
Most of that is just offloading the coal burden onto natural gas
That small Nuclear uptick in 2023 was Vogtle 3, which was completed and hooked up to the grid in 2023, with capacity expanded in 2024. We have two additional nuclear power plants being built right now, but that’s out of the 80 currently being built worldwide. The grid is our single most important piece of infrastructure and woefully underserved.
I really hope that the US pivots hard into solar and battery storage. The cost reductions and efficiency of solar with sodium or LFP batteries are great.
Nuclear is still king of energy density. But outside of super constrained areas like cities? Solar should be the go to for all but niche situations where wind and hydro are a better solution.
and the fact that this is the *first full year* means there’s actually a clean before/after line in the data, which doesn’t happen that often with energy transitions.
We can get coal down to 0% so easily if we tried.
Is there a version of this chart in absolute values instead of percentage?
All the colours in the world, and you use TWO greys. SMH.
Is there a reason there’s so much more emphasis on wind and solar, and so little on natural gas and nuclear?
If you really want to see some Wind and Solar, check out South Australia’s monthly data graphs. [https://explore.openelectricity.org.au/energy/sa1/?range=1y&interval=1M&view=discrete-time&group=Detailed](https://explore.openelectricity.org.au/energy/sa1/?range=1y&interval=1M&view=discrete-time&group=Detailed)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_coal-fired_power_stations_in_the_United_States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_coal-fired_power_stations_in_the_United_States)
Using the data there (with the caveat that some of which appears a bit dated), power generated by coal by state (in TWh):
82 Texas
55 Indiana
53 West Virginia
50 Missouri
45 Kentucky
36 Florida
35 Ohio
35 Alabama
30 Wyoming
29 Illinois
29 Michigan
28 North Carolina
25 North Dakota
25 Pennsylvania
24 Arkansas
21 Iowa
21 Nebraska
20 Wisconsin
18 Tennessee
17 Colorado
17 Kansas
17 Utah
16 Minnesota
15 Georgia
13 Arizona
13 Mississippi
13 South Carolina
11 Oklahoma
9.4 Louisiana
8.9 New Mexico
8.2 Montana
5.1 Washington
2.4 Virginia
1.7 South Dakota
1.5 Nevada
1.0 Maryland
0.6 Alaska
0.3 California
And per 1m population (though, of course just because power is generated in one state doesn’t mean that the power is used in those states):
52 Wyoming
31 North Dakota
30 West Virginia
10 Nebraska
9.7 Kentucky
7.9 Indiana
7.9 Missouri
7.8 Arkansas
7.2 Montana
6.7 Alabama
6.4 Iowa
5.9 Kansas
4.9 Utah
4.3 Mississippi
4.2 New Mexico
3.4 Wisconsin
3.0 Ohio
2.8 Michigan
2.8 Colorado
2.7 Minnesota
2.7 Oklahoma
2.6 Texas
2.5 Tennessee
2.5 North Carolina
2.4 South Carolina
2.2 Illinois
2.0 Louisiana
1.9 Pennsylvania
1.8 South Dakota
1.7 Arizona
1.5 Florida
1.3 Georgia
0.8 Alaska
0.6 Washington
0.4 Nevada
0.3 Virginia
0.2 Maryland
0.01 California
Where is all the nuclear power coming from?
Gas is the elephant in the room
I’m assuming that the missing 7.2% is hydro?
I’m unhappy to see the nuclear line trending down instead of up, but this is good news anyway
Even with all the repubs and fossil fuel companies deliberate sabotage.
I welder, can you plot this graph with total numbers instead of share? We’ll still see the same tipping point between coal and wind +solar. But it’ll tell a more true story about „decline of nuclear“
In terms of just solar installations, Texas is actually leading the way (ahead of CA)…most likely due to less regulation is the reason that I heard.
every time I look at this I think about all the abandoned TVA nuclear projects and how we could be much further along with this.
Can’t believe we never really tried nuclear
The data in this graph are ugly, not beautiful. Hydro is omitted and the units (%?) are undefined.
Yeah, all fine now, but wait until we hit peak sun!
Corporations want you to suffer and die and this is proof.
Meanwhile, here in California, yesterday the state’s power mix was 12% fossil fuel (natural gas, no coal). 88% of the power was from solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, battery storage, and nuclear. Contrary to what critics said a few years back, the state adding more renewable with batteries has *increased* reliability. State is forecasting excess capacity for this summer and no blackouts expected.
It’s fashionable to bash California but it’s clear the state’s aggressive adoption of renewables has been a huge success.
I’m very happy that coal is down and solar is up but man I wish nuclear was up and gas was also down
Despite GOP attempts to destroy green energy, too. Amazing!
Meanwhile, my local utility is losing millions running an outdated coal-fired power plant because the gop won’t allow them to shut it down.
Ugh. Finally. Let’s work on getting the grid updated now..
The geothermal line being completely invisible here is the thing that gets me every time I look at a chart like this. It generates about 0.4% of U.S. electricity right now, so it disappears into the rounding. But the Fervo IPO this month raised $1.89B and Cape Station in Utah goes live later this year at 100 MW scaling to 500 MW by 2028. The drilling cost curve is dropping fast, from $7,000 to a target of $3,000 per kilowatt.
I work at Lium (https://www.lium.ai) which is building data infrastructure for exactly this kind of complex energy data, subsurface readings, thermal logs, sensor outputs from geothermal wells. The physical buildout is accelerating. Whether geothermal gets its own visible line on a chart like this in 10 years is genuinely an open question right now and I think the answer is yes
Great viz by the way. Including the gas curve was the right call, most people telling the renewables story quietly leave it out 🙂