Renewables the second-most prevalent US electricity source in 2020

By Mickey Francis

This article was published by the US Energy Information Administration on July 28, 2021.

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 per cent 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 US electricity generation and steadily increased use of wind and solar.

In 2020, US electricity generation from coal in all sectors declined 20 per cent from 2019, while renewables, including small-scale solar, increased 9 per cent. Wind, currently the most prevalent source of renewable electricity in the United States, grew 14 per cent in 2020 from 2019. Utility-scale solar generation (from projects greater than 1 megawatt) increased 26 per cent, and small-scale solar, such as grid-connected rooftop solar panels, increased 19 per cent.

Coal-fired electricity generation in the United States peaked at 2,016 billion kWh in 2007 and much of that capacity has been replaced by or converted to natural gas-fired generation since then. 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 per cent from 2019 to 2020 because several nuclear power plants retired and other nuclear plants experienced slightly more maintenance-related outages.

We 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 our Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), we expect coal-fired electricity generation in all sectors in 2021 to increase 18 per cent from 2020 levels before falling 2 per cent in 2022. We expect US renewable generation across all sectors to increase 7 per cent in 2021 and 10 per cent in 2022.

As a result, we forecast coal will be the second-most prevalent electricity source in 2021, and renewables will be the second-most prevalent source in 2022. We expect nuclear electric power to decline 2 per cent in 2021 and 3 per cent in 2022 as operators retire several generators.