With the US energy capacity data for the end of 2020, I thought it would be a good time to see how the US energy capacity has changed in the past decade.
Using data from the United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, I created two new charts that highlight the changes that have occurred in these 10 years. In addition to the graphs, I describe how the market share of these different energy sources has changed. At the end of the article, you can view interactive graphics – note that they generally don’t display well on small devices (for example, phones), so they are best viewed on a laptop / desktop.
One thing to highlight before jumping to comparisons: the overall energy capacity in the United States has changed very little in these 10 years. The nation’s total energy capacity at the end of December 2010 was 1,132.68 gigawatts (GW), while the nation’s total energy capacity at the end of December 2020 was only slightly higher at 1,217.23 GW.
One more note: this report does not take into account small-scale solar energy (mainly roof solar).
First of all, you can see that the solar power capacity has gone from almost nothing (1.12 GW) to a sizeable player on the market (52.58 GW). In percentage terms, it went from 0.10% to 4.32% at the time.
Wind energy increased from 3.4% to 9.8% – an increase of 81.17 GW in the decade.
There was a big loser in that time frame and a smaller loser. The coal generation capacity collapsed, going from 30.37% of the market to 19.65%. In total, 104.73 GW of coal-fired power was taken down. Similarly (but to a lesser extent), oil rose from 5.4% to 3.2%. On the other hand, natural gas grew from 40.8% to 44.3%, and an increase of 77.44 GW from December 2010 to December 2020.
Combining all renewable energy options, renewable energies stand out with much more boldness. They represented 13.8% of the US energy capacity at the end of 2010 and 22.2% of the country’s energy capacity at the end of 2020. In absolute terms, renewable energies grew from 156.1 GW in December 2010 to 294.12 GW in December 2020.
Yes, the country still has a long way to go to see the renewable revolution come to life, and to realize the idea that natural gas should be a growing source of energy in the market, but the growth of renewable energy in the last 10 years is certainly a positive story. In addition, as this covers only large-scale power plants, remember that the results for solar energy and renewable energy as a whole would look slightly better if small-scale solar energy were added.
Here are the interactive versions of the charts above (hover over the bars to see total installed capacity in late 2010 versus late 2020):
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