Renewable energy in the United States
According to data from the US Energy Information Administration, renewable energy accounted for 17.8% of total primary energy production and 22.7% of total utility-scale electricity generation in the United States in 2024, up from 8.4% and 21% in 2022.
Since 2019, wind power has been the largest producer of renewable electricity in the country. Wind power generated 434 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2022, which accounted for 10% of the nation's electricity and 48% of renewable generation. By January 2023, the United States nameplate generating capacity for wind power was 141.3 gigawatts. Texas remained firmly established as the leader in wind power deployment, followed by Iowa and Oklahoma as of the first quarter of 2023.
Hydroelectric power is the second-largest producer of renewable electricity in the country, generating around 6.2% of the nation's electricity in 2022 as well as 29% of renewable generation.
The United States is the fourth largest producer of hydroelectricity in the world after China, Canada and Brazil.
Solar power provides a growing share of electricity in the country, with over 111.6 GW of installed capacity generating about 3.4% of the country's total electricity supply in 2022, up from 2.8% the previous year. As of 2020, more than 260,000 people worked in the solar industry and 43 states deployed net metering, where energy utilities bought back excess power generated by solar arrays. Large photovoltaic power plants in the United States include Mount Signal Solar and Solar Star. Since the United States pioneered solar thermal power technology in the 1980s with Solar One, several more such power stations have been built. The largest of these solar thermal power stations are the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, southwest of Las Vegas, and the SEGS group of plants in the Mojave Desert, with a total generating capacity of 354 MW.
Other renewable energy sources include geothermal, with The Geysers in Northern California the largest geothermal complex in the world.
The development of renewable energy and energy efficiency marked "a new era of energy exploration" in the United States, according to President Barack Obama in 2009. In a joint address to the Congress on February 24, 2009, President Obama called for doubling renewable energy within the following three years. Renewable energy reached a major milestone in the first quarter of 2011, when it contributed 11.7% of total national energy production, surpassing energy production from nuclear power for the first time since 1997.
In his 2012 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama restated his commitment to renewable energy and mentioned the long-standing Interior Department commitment to permit 10 GW of renewable energy projects on public land in 2012. Under President Joe Biden, Congress increased that goal to 25 GW by 2025. As of May 2023, the Bureau of Land Management has approved projects meeting approximately 37% of that goal.
Rationale for renewables
Renewable energy technologies encompass a broad, diverse array of technologies, including solar photovoltaics, solar thermal power plants and heating/cooling systems, wind farms, hydroelectricity, geothermal power plants, and ocean power systems and the use of biomass.The report Outlook On Renewable Energy In America explains that America needs renewable energy, for many reasons:
America needs energy that is secure, reliable, improves public health, protects the environment, addresses climate change, creates jobs, and provides technological leadership. America needs renewable energy. If renewable energy is to be developed to its full potential, America will need coordinated, sustained federal and state policies that expand renewable energy markets; promote and deploy new technology; and provide appropriate opportunities to encourage renewable energy use in all critical energy market sectors: wholesale and distributed electricity generation, thermal energy applications, and transportation.
Another benefit of some renewable energy technologies, like wind and solar photovoltaics is that they require little or no water to generate electricity whereas thermoelectric power plants require vast amounts of water for operation.
In 2009, President Barack Obama in the inaugural address called for the expanded use of renewable energy to meet the twin challenges of energy security and climate change. Those were the first references ever to the nation's energy use, to renewable resources, and to climate change in an inauguration speech of a United States president. President Obama looked to the near future, saying that as a nation, the United States will "harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories."
Obama's New Energy For America plan called for a federal investment of $150 billion over the next decade to catalyze private efforts to build a sustainable energy future. Specifically, the plan calls for renewable energy to supply 10% of the nation's electricity by 2012, rising to 25% by 2025.
In his joint address to Congress in 2009, Obama stated that: "We know the country that harnesses the power of clean, renewable energy will lead the 21st century.... Thanks to our recovery plan, we will double this nation's supply of renewable energy in the next three years... It is time for America to lead again".
As of 2011, new evidence has emerged that there are considerable risks associated with traditional energy sources, and that major changes to the mix of energy technologies is needed:
A 2024 study quantifies the environmental and health gains from increased wind and solar energy use in the U.S. between 2019 and 2022, reporting a reduction of 900 million metric tons of CO2 and an estimated $249 billion in climate and health benefits.
Several mining tragedies globally have underscored the human toll of the coal supply chain. New EPA initiatives targeting air toxins, coal ash, and effluent releases highlight the environmental impacts of coal and the cost of addressing them with control technologies. The use of fracking in natural gas exploration is coming under scrutiny, with evidence of groundwater contamination and greenhouse gas emissions. Concerns are increasing about the vast amounts of water used at coal-fired and nuclear power plants, particularly in regions of the country facing water shortages. Events at the Fukushima nuclear plant have renewed doubts about the ability to operate large numbers of nuclear plants safely over the long term. Further, cost estimates for "next generation" nuclear units continue to climb, and lenders are unwilling to finance these plants without taxpayer guarantees.
Renewable energy and carbon dioxide emissions
Between 2010 and 2020, the cost of wind, solar, and natural gas dropped dramatically. In 2018, EIA expected that, after rising by 2.7% in 2018, U.S. energy-related carbon dioxide emissions would decrease by 2.5% in 2019 and by 1.0% in 2020 due to a shift away from coal and toward renewables and natural gas.Renewable energy has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions in three key energy use sectors: transport, heating and cooling, and electricity. The year 2018 had been a peak year for the use of air conditioning, which was expected to decline.
Current trends
Renewable energy in the electricity sector
Renewable energy accounted for 14.94% of the domestically produced electricity in 2016 in the United States. This proportion has grown from just 7.7% in 2001, although the trend is sometimes obscured by large yearly variations in hydroelectric power generation. Most of the growth since 2001 can be seen in the expansion of wind generated power, and more recently, in the growth in solar generated power. Renewable energy in California is prominent, with around 29% of electricity coming from RPS-eligible renewable sources.
The United States has some of the best renewable energy resources in the world, with the potential to meet a rising and significant share of the nation's energy demand. A quarter of the country's land area has winds strong enough to generate electricity at the same price as natural gas and coal. Less than 5% of the federal land that is suitable for renewable energy development is needed to achieve carbon-free electricity by 2035.
Many of the new technologies that harness renewables—including wind, solar, geothermal, and biofuels—are, or soon will be, economically competitive with the fossil fuels that meet 85% of United States energy needs. Dynamic growth rates are driving down costs and spurring rapid advances in technologies. Wind power and solar power are becoming increasingly important relative to the older and more established hydroelectric power source. By 2016 wind power covered 37.23% of total renewable electricity production against 43.62% for hydroelectric power. The remaining share of power was generated by biomass at 10.27%, solar power at 6.03% and geothermal with 2.86% of total renewable generation.
In 2015, Georgetown, Texas became one of the first American cities to be powered entirely by renewable energy, choosing to do so for financial stability reasons.
The United States consumed about 4,000 TWh of electricity in 2012, and about 30,000 TWh of primary energy. Efficiency improvements are expected to reduce usage to 15,000 TWh by 2050.