mix

How the United States produces its electricity has changed dramatically over the past few decades. Coal used to be the dominant source of power in this country, but natural gas surpassed it in 2016, and coal’s share has been shrinking ever since. Fossil fuel still generates the majority of America’s electricity, but renewable power is increasing its contribution all the time.

On a state-by-state basis, there are very large variations in the mix of power sources. Ten states still get their largest amount of power from coal, but this is down from 32 states in 2001. Four states have hydroelectric power as their largest source, including Vermont which gets more than half of its power that way.

Texas produces more electricity than any other state by a wide margin. It’s not just because it has a large population. It is because it uses huge amounts of power to refine petroleum products. Coal produces only 13% of Texas’ electricity and the state is by far the country’s largest producer of wind power.

New York gets nearly half of its power from natural gas, 21% from hydroelectric power, and 21% from nuclear power. Wind and solar power are still small, but both are growing in the state.

When people try to assess the climate impact of driving electric cars, based on the origins of the electricity they use to power the car, the results can vary dramatically based on what state they live in. Nationwide, electricity is getting cleaner and greener, but the process is by no means uniform across the country.

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How Does Your State Make Electricity?

Photo, posted March 17, 2021, courtesy of Bureau of Reclamation via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Wind-powered electricity has been increasing its contribution to the American energy mix for years as the number of installed turbines has rapidly grown. In the final months of 2020, wind power set a number of new records. Strong wind conditions in November and December, especially in the central states, led to record output from wind turbines.

On April 10, 2019, the U.S. set a record for daily electricity generation from wind turbines in the lower 48 states by producing 1.42 million megawatthours. That record stood until several different days during November and December. The newest record was set on December 23 when wind generation reached 1.76 million MWh. That constituted 17% of total electricity generation in the U.S. For the entire year of 2020, wind power accounted for 9% of U.S. electricity generation.

Late 2020 also saw new records set for hourly dispatch of wind resources. On December 22, between 9 and 10 pm Eastern Time, 82 gigawatts of electricity sourced from wind power was dispatched across the U.S., breaking the one-month-old previous record of 73.4 GW. Wind power varies considerably over the course of a day. During December, wind power across the country varied between that record of 82 GW to a low of 14.6 GW.

The contributions from wind power are expected to continue to grow. The U.S. currently has over 112 GW of installed wind capacity. Project developers and grid operators plan to add another 12.2 GW of new wind capacity to the U.S. grid by the end of 2021. More than half of that new capacity will be in Texas and Oklahoma.

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U.S. wind generation sets new daily and hourly records at end of 2020

Photo, posted July 12, 2010, courtesy of Tom Shockey via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.