Energy Information Administration Short Term Energy Outlook December 2023:
Generation from coal-fired power plants has the sharpest decline in the forecast as a result of growing
renewable energy sources, low natural gas prices, and continuing retirements of coal-fired power plants.
We forecast that coal-fired power plants will generate less in 2024 (599 billion kwh) than the combined
generation from solar and wind (688 billion kWh) for the first time on record.Despite ongoing headwinds from high interest rates, supply chain snafus, and ginned-up NIMBY opposition, Renewable Energy is Rocketing in 2024.
Eleven US states — including the largest by economic output, California — now generate enough renewable energy each year to cover at least 50% of their power requirements, according to data collated by Stanford University Professor Mark Z. Jacobson.
South Dakota leads the way, with renewable power output equivalent to 96.9% of the state’s consumption in the 12 months to end-September 2023. Wind alone accounted for 69.7% of the mix.
Iowa ranked second, at 81.4% renewables — almost entirely wind — followed by Montana (80.5% renewables), Washington State (79%), Kansas (65.1%), New Mexico (64.6%), Oregon (64.5%), Wyoming (59.5%), North Dakota (57.9%), Oklahoma (56.5%), and California (50.9%).
California has, by far, the largest share of solar in the mix. Grid-scale solar PV and concentrated solar plants covered 16.6% of the state’s electricity needs over the 12-month period, and rooftop solar another 11.3%.
The Golden State has above-average retail electricity tariffs — partly because wildfire costs are passed along to consumers — but every other state on the 50%-plus renewables list has power prices well below the US average, according to statistics from the Energy Information Administration.
As of October 2023, North Dakota has the lowest electricity prices in the US, followed by Wyoming and Iowa.
—
On the international side – Adrian Hiel of the European group Energy Cities tweets this graph:
Phenomenal. The Netherlands have gone from 15% to 50% renewable electricity in the last five years.
Mark Jacobson (engineer at Stanford) had some other remarkable tweets this weekend, indicating the pace of renewable development and the scale of penetration is accelerating.
