The United States is on track to produce more electricity this year from renewable power than from coal for the first time on record, new government projections show, a transformation partly driven by the coronavirus pandemic, with profound implications in the fight against climate change.
It is a milestone that seemed all but unthinkable a decade ago, when coal was so dominant that it provided nearly half the nation’s electricity. And it comes despite the Trump administration’s three-year push to try to revive the ailing industry by weakening pollution rules on coal-burning power plants.
Those efforts, however, failed to halt the powerful economic forces that have led electric utilities to retire hundreds of aging coal plants since 2010 and run their remaining plants less frequently. The cost of building large wind farms has declined more than 40 percent in that time, while solar costs have dropped more than 80 percent. And the price of natural gas, a cleaner-burning alternative to coal, has fallen to historic lows as a result of the fracking boom.
Now the coronavirus outbreak is pushing coal producers into their deepest crisis yet. As factories, retailers, restaurants and office buildings have shut down nationwide to slow the spread of the coronavirus, demand for electricity has fallen sharply. And, because coal plants often cost more to operate than gas plants or renewables, many utilities are cutting back on coal power first in response.
In just the first four and a half months of this year, America’s fleet of wind turbines, solar panels and hydroelectric dams have produced more electricity than coal on 90 separate days — shattering last year’s record of 38 days for the entire year. On May 1 in Texas, wind power alone supplied nearly three times as much electricity as coal did.
The latest report from the Energy Information Administration estimates that America’s total coal consumption will fall by nearly one-quarter this year, and coal plants are expected to provide just 19 percent of the nation’s electricity, dropping for the first time below both nuclear power and renewable power, a category that includes wind, solar, hydroelectric dams, geothermal and biomass. Natural gas plants, which supply 38 percent of the nation’s power, are expected to hold their output steady thanks to low fuel prices.
More: In a first, renewable energy is poised to eclipse coal in U.S.
Agent_03 on May 16th, 2020 at 18:46 UTC »
It's absolutely insane how quickly costs for renewables have dropped: between 2010 to 2019 wind energy become 70% cheaper and solar became 89% cheaper. And they're still getting cheaper.
... and they're already cheaper than building new fossil fuel plants. We're at the point where in some areas it's cheaper to build new wind or solar farms than to keep existing coal plants running.
Things are moving in the right direction!
buddhakhan13 on May 16th, 2020 at 18:16 UTC »
We're doing our part. The wife and I purchased a solar system for our home and in 4 months have saved 3tons of CO2. Also saved about $50 a month on our electricity.
Edit to clarify. We purchased a 2500 sq ft home in the Florida panhandle that is about 70 years old. It was not updated or efficient in the slightest although it did have some better windows put in during the late 90s. Last summer, our first two months here, our bill was $450 and $375, for August and September. The company we purchased from also updated our home to a hybrid water heater, nest smart thermostat, replaced all of the bulbs with LED and foam sealed our attic.
Those improvements bought our electricity down to about half of what it was, 200 the month before the system was turned on. The next month was $20. 150-200 monthly for the system for 20 years, the rate changes after 10. The total for the loan was 48k, but with even the minimal savings of $50 I estimated, that’s $12,000 savings over the 20 years which is actually less than the amount I borrowed.
The ten year estimate for pay off in the comments below, is in regards to us paying it off early before the rate increases.
Mjmartin_nz on May 16th, 2020 at 17:19 UTC »
Isn't this just because Coal is being replaced by natural gas? Although not forecast, the figures from 2019 show only 17.5% was from renewable. With the rest from non-renewable (fossil or nuclear). This feels a little like manipulated stats to be honest.