This is the first time in the history of the United States that its wind and solar power generation exceeds nuclear power. It is reported that the country's wind and solar power generation in April was 17.96% more than that of nuclear power plants. In addition, according to the sun day campaign's analysis of the newly released U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data, clean energy power generation - including biomass, geothermal and hydropower, and driven by the strong growth of solar and wind energy - accounted for nearly 30% of the total U.S. power generation in April.
From January to April 2022, clean energy accounted for more than 25% of electricity in the United States.
In the latest "monthly report on electricity" of EIA, the data as of April 30, 2022 also reflected that the year-on-year change percentage of solar energy (including roofs) was 28.9%, while wind energy increased by 24.2% year-on-year. The combined growth of solar energy and wind energy was 25.4%, accounting for more than 1/6 (16.6%) of U.S. power generation (12.2% for wind energy and 4.4% for solar energy). The actual figure is based on net power generation (gigawatt hours).
In the first four months of 2022, hydropower increased by 9.99%, but wind alone provided 70.89% more electricity than hydropower.
When it comes to fossil fuels, renewable energy is 26.13% and 37.8% more than coal and nuclear energy respectively in the first three months of 2022. In fact, compared with the same period in 2021, the power generation capacity of coal decreased by 3.9%, while that of nuclear power decreased by 1.8%.
Ken bossong, executive director of sun day campaign, said: "despite adverse factors such as covid pandemic, grid access problems and global supply chain disruption, solar and wind energy are still developing. In addition, they have a greater advantage over nuclear power."