For the first time, more electricity was generated from renewable sources in the U.S. over the course of one year than from coal.
As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz details below, in 2022, renewable energy sources created more than 900 terawatt-hours of electric power in the country compared to a little over 800 that came from coal.
On a global scale, a similar change is coming – renewables are projected to outweigh coal electricity generation by 2027.
Up until 2007, coal accounted for more than 2,000 terawatt hours of electricity in the U.S. before the figure started to declined as regulations around fossil fuels – limits on carbon-intensity and the emissions of toxic elements like mercury – tightened.