U.S. Reports a Major Milestone in Wind and Solar Power 10 percent of electricity generated in the country in March came from these
10 percent of electricity generated in the country in March came from these renewables
Ten percent of all of the electricity generated in the U.S. in March came from wind and solar power, marking the first such milestone in U.S. history, according to a new U.S. Energy Information Administration report .
The EIA estimates that wind and solar farms likely generated 10 percent of America’s electricity in April as well, which would be another first, according to the report.
This year’s milestone shows that renewables are becoming a major source of electricity in the U.S. and can no longer be considered “alternative” energy, said Christopher Clack, CEO of the power grid modeling firm Vibrant Clean Energy and a former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researcher.
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The report’s findings represent a marked increased from March 2016, when wind and solar generated 8.6 percent of total U.S. electricity.
Overall, about 7 percent of U.S. electricity comes from wind and solar annually, up from less than 1 percent a decade ago. Texas is the country’s biggest wind power producer and California is the largest solar producer.
Wind and solar will never generate much more power than they do now...too unreliable, especially during the Northern Hemisphere winter, which is where most of the land mass is.
Guess time will tell Rex, time will tell.
“The U.S. was at under 5 percent just five years ago and maxed out at about 7 percent in 2015,” he said. “Given price competitiveness of wind and commercial-scale solar and the public and corporate appetite for clean, renewable energy, an increasing fraction of U.S. electricity will be generated renewably.”
Nice!
Any idea how much unit costs went up?
I'd be interested in that number.
More: Apparfently Trump is opposed to environmentally friendly solutions:
The renewables milestone comes amid actions by the Trump administration to turn back federal climate policies intended to cut greenhouse gas emissions by embracing wind, solar and other renewable energy.
Trump, who has called climate change a “hoax,” has re-committed the U.S. to coal energy, which was the largest single source of climate pollution in the U.S. until being eclipsed by the transportation sector last year.