U.S. Energy Information Administration said more electricity was generated from renewable sources of fuel in 2022 than from coal for the first time. Electricity generated from renewable sources such as wind and solar has grown rapidly in the past decade. Doug Lewin, president of Stoic Energy, power consultant, told Houston Chronicle, “It’s been a really meteoric rise for renewables.”
Texas leads in wind power with 26 percent of U.S. wind generation. And the Chronicle said Texas provides 16 percent of U.S. solar generation.
EIA said about 21 percent of 4,090 million megawatt hours of electricity last year was produced from renewable sources compared to 20 percent from coal (down from 23 percent in 2021 after several coal plants were retired or are being used less). And EIA said the trend is expected to continue. More than 80 percent of new utility-scale generating capacity brought online this year will be from wind, battery storage and solar.
A new report from Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis said U.S. is expected to close half of its coal-fired generation capacity by 2026 – just 15 years after it reached its peak in 2011.