Good news as natural gas, coal, and solar see the biggest changes.

Good news as natural gas, coal, and solar see the biggest changes.

Just before the holiday break, the US Energy Information Agency released data on the country’s electrical generation. Because of delays in reporting, the monthly data runs through October, so it doesn’t provide a complete picture of the changes we’ve seen in 2023.

But some of the trends now seem locked in for the year: wind and solar are likely to be in a dead heat with coal, and all carbon-emissions-free sources combined will account for roughly 40 percent of US electricity production.

  • FireTower@lemmy.world
    42·
    1 year ago

    Good job nuclear at beating out coal for 2nd place. Hopefully modular reactors increase on popularity to combat coal and other fossil fuels, with help from the other green energy sources.

    • lettruthout@lemmy.worldEnglish
      61·
      1 year ago

      “Nuclear itself is largely unchanged, allowing it to pass coal thanks to the latter’s decline. Its output has been boosted by a new, 1.1 Gigawatt reactor that come online this year (a second at the same site, Vogtle in Georgia, is set to start commercial production at any moment). But that’s likely to be the end of new nuclear capacity for this decade; the challenge will be keeping existing plants open despite their age and high costs.”

      With its very high cost, still unresolved waste issues and government-required support, it’s hard to believe that nuclear has any real future. At the same time the costs for renewables is trending downward.

      • FireTower@lemmy.world
        41·
        1 year ago

        very high cost, still unresolved waste issue

        The whole point of modular plants is their lower entry cost. And nuclear waste has been being recycled in France for decades.

        Nuclear has an important role in a zero emission world along the other green energies.

      • Rusticus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        You are absolutely correct about the eulogy for nuclear but will get many downvotes online from the idealistic yet unrealistic youth.

  • Wooster@startrek.websiteEnglish
    43·
    1 year ago

    Hydroelectric production has dropped by about six percent since last year, causing it to slip from 6.1 percent to 5.8 percent of the total production. Depending on the next couple of months, that may allow solar to pass hydro on the list of renewables.

    That’s a little disappointing. Hydro seems to always be forgotten amongst renewable sources. Granted, it’s the most location specific of the renewables, but still.