Written by John Lounsbury
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported 28 July 2021, that former “King Coal” has fallen to fourth place as a source of US electricity generation. Last year (2020) natural gas was the most abundant source of generation (41%), followed by renewables (21%0, nuclear (20%) and coal (19%).
Please share this article – Go to very top of page, right hand side, for social media buttons.
The rapid decline of coal since 2008 is seen in the graph below, as is the concommitant rise of natural gas and renewables.
The historical data for coal is shown in the table below. Note that coal production has seen a rebound in 2021 for the first 6 months (9.7%) but is still 2.7% below 2019. The decline in coal production from the 2008 peak was 40% through 2019.
Click for larger image. Back arrow returns to this page
The pandemic economy contributed to the relative advance of renewables. The amount of electricity generated in 2020 was down 5.49% from 2019, almost all at the expense of fossil fuels. Renewables increased in 2020 over 2019 by 2.17%, while fossil fuels declined by 6.92%. Nuclear energy (approximately 9% of production in 2020) was down year-over-year (-2.41%). Data from EIA:
Click for larger image. Back arrow returns to this page.
Coal and renewables are in a race to see who will be #2 in 2021 and so far coal appears to have a leg up. But, based on trends for the past decade, that “victory” may not last beyond this year.
Caption graphic photo credit: From photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash. Full image:
.
