US renewable energy is on the rise. Here's how

Last year, the US generated 834 million megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity from renewables, making 2020 a record year for green energy.

Wind, hydroelectric, solar, biomass and geothermal energy produced around 21% of all the electricity generated in the US, coming second only to natural gas (1.6 million MWh) as a source of power.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) data also details the steady decline of coal in the US energy mix, dropping by 20% in all sectors since 2019. Coal use peaked in the US in 2007, when it produced 2 billion MWh of electricity. It remained the leading source of power until 2016, having been gradually replaced by natural gas.

Although it is a fossil fuel, natural gas burns cleaner than coal or oil, producing less CO2 emissions and other pollutants.

The shift to renewables is gathering pace internationally. It rose from 2,200 MW in 2016 to 6,100 MW in 2020, according to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC). This, it says in its Global Wind Report 2021, is partly due to new installations and developments in China and the US.

A long-time devotee of coal, the country has recently started advancing a series of legislative and policy frameworks that favour the US renewable energy sector. This year, the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a review of a new wind farm due to be built off the northeast coast of the US. The plan had been repeatedly delayed by the last US administration, but now looks set to come to fruition.

Called Vineyard Wind, the development will have 84 wind turbines generating 800 MW of electricity, off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard in the state of Massachusetts. All being well, it should be ready to start powering homes and businesses by 2023.

Vineyard Wind is just one of 13 offshore wind farms planned for the Atlantic coast of the US. Altogether, around 2,000 turbines are expected to be installed producing enough energy to power 10 million homes by 2030.

In 2020, US renewable energy, including small-scale solar, increased its share of electricity generation by 9%, according to the EIA. Wind plays the biggest part in that, growing 14% in usage from 2019 to 2020. Solar is growing its share, too. Small-scale installations like rooftop panels that feed into the electricity network grew by 19%, while larger, utility-scale solar projects increased by 26%, from 2019 to 2020.

Over the same period, nuclear power’s contribution to electricity generation in the US declined by 2%. The EIA says that is because of older nuclear power plants being taken off-stream and an increase in maintenance-related outages at others.