US: Remember that coal surge last year? Yeah, it’s over

(Inside Climate News, 8 Sep 2022) Renewables are now about 25 percent of U.S. electricity generation, leapfrogging coal.

Renewable energy rose to make up nearly one-fourth of the electricity generated in the United States in the second quarter this year, while coal generation declined.

The changing sources for our electricity are happening as the West deals with a years-long drought and sweats through a late summer heatwave—events that underscore why we need an energy transition to respond to climate change, and also how climate change is increasing the challenge of managing the system through the transition.

Renewables’ 24.8 percent share of generation is a new high, but as I’ve said here many times, records are to be expected during an energy transition. The latest figures are from the Energy Information Administration.

“We’re heading in the right direction,” said Joshua Rhodes, an energy systems research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin.

External link

Inside Climate News, 8 Sep 2022: US: Remember that coal surge last year? Yeah, it’s over