For the first time, the United States generated 20% of its electricity from solar power and wind in April, according to a study conducted by climate think tank Ember. The record is being driven by a wind boom in the Great Plains and Midwest, across states like Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and North and South Dakota.
In 2015, the United States generated 5.7% of its electricity from wind and solar (229.8 TWh). By 2021, it had more than doubled to reach 13% of its electricity from wind and solar (543.5 TWh).
Credit: Ember
The trend reflects the global acceleration towards wind and solar energy, which have doubled since 2015 to deliver a record tenth of global electricity in 2021, according to Ember’s Global Electricity Review.
Wind and solar were the fastest-growing forms of electricity worldwide for the seventeenth year in a row in 2021 and are projected to be the backbone of the future electricity system.
Many European countries already produced more than a quarter of their electricity from wind and solar in 2021, including Germany, Spain and the U.K.
The International Energy Agency states that for Net Zero, wind and solar need to reach 20% of global electricity by 2025 and 70% by 2050.
“Wind and solar are breaking records around the world,” said Phil MacDonald, COO of Ember. “The process that will reshape the existing energy system has begun. Wind and solar provide a solution to the ‘trilemma’ of achieving a sustainable, affordable and secure energy supply. This decade they need to be deployed at lightning speed.”
News item from Ember
