EIA report finds that renewable energy generation surpassed coal in 2022

In its annual electric power report for 2022, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) found that generation from renewable sources surpassed coal-fired generation in the electric power sector for the first time.

Overall, the U.S. electric power sector produced 4,090 million megawatt hours (MWh) of electric power in 2022. Natural gas remained the largest source of U.S. electricity generation, increasing from a 37 percent share in 2021 to 39 percent in 2022.

The share of coal-fired generation decreased to 20 percent in 2022 from 23 percent in 2021, as several coal-fired power plants retired while the remaining plants were used less. The share of nuclear generation decreased to 19 percent from 20 percent in 2021, due to the Palisades nuclear power plant’s retirement in May 2022.

The combined wind and solar share of total generation increased to 14 percent in 2022 from 12 percent in 2021, while hydropower generation remained unchanged, at 6 percent in 2022. Also, the shares for biomass and geothermal sources remained unchanged, at less than 1 percent. When you add up wind, solar, hydro, biomass, and geothermal, it represents about 22 percent – higher than coal and nuclear. Renewable generation first surpassed nuclear generation in 2021.

More capacity led to growth in wind and solar generation. For example, utility-scale solar capacity in the U.S. electric power sector increased from 61 gigawatts (GW) in 2021 to 71 GW in 2022. Also, wind capacity grew from 133 GW in 2021 to 141 GW in 2022.

Texas accounted for 26 percent of total U.S. wind generation last year, followed by Iowa at 10 percent and Oklahoma at 9 percent.

California ranked first in utility-scale solar generation, producing 26 percent of the country’s utility-scale solar electricity. Texas was next at 16 percent, followed by North Carolina at 8 percent.

EIA forecasts the wind share of the U.S. generation mix will increase to increase to 12 percent in 2023 from 11 percent last year. Also, it expects the solar share to grow to 5 percent in 2023, up from 4 percent last year. The natural gas share of generation is forecast to remain unchanged from last year at 39 percent, while the coal share of generation is forecasted to decline to 17 percent in 2023 from 20 percent last year.