New Energy Beating Coal, Nuclear In 2020

U.S. Renewables Produce 17.5% More Electricity Than Coal During First Quarter Of 2020 As Solar Grows 23% And Wind 17%; Renewables Also Outpace Nuclear Power In Both February And March And Provide 21% Of Nation’s Electricity

Ken Bossong, May 27, 2020 (Sun Day)

“Renewable energy sources (i.e., biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, wind) produced significantly more electricity than coal during the first quarter of 2020 and also topped nuclear power in both February and March…[Data through March 31, 2020] reveals that solar and wind both showed continued, strong growth, expanding faster than all other energy sources. During the first three months of this year, solar-generated electricity expanded by 22.5% (compared to the same period in 2019) and provided almost 2.6% of the nation’s total while wind grew by 17.4% and accounted for 9.0% of total generation…

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…[Together, wind and solar] provided more than 11.5% of total U.S. electrical production during the first three months of 2020. Combined with hydropower, biomass, and geothermal, renewables provided 20.8% of total electrical output…[That was 17.5% more than coal during the first quarter of 2020, which] was 33.8% lower than a year earlier and accounted for just 17.7% of the nation’s total; by comparison, coal’s share was 25.9% in the first quarter of 2019…[New Energy also produced 3.6% more electricity than nuclear in February and 6.0% more] in March…[March 2020 also suggested New Energy’s response to Covid is strong. Growth] in solar-generated electricity slowed a bit but still was 10.1% higher than March 2019 while wind’s output was 12.9% more than a year earlier and that of non-hydro renewables overall was up 10.0%. By comparison, coal plummeted by 35.6% and nuclear dropped by 1.7%...” click here for more

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