Wind and Solar Generated More US Energy Than Coal in 2024

New data regarding the United States electrical grid reveals that the country’s wind and solar energy output overtook coal last year. Though data for December is still pending, US wind and solar farms sustained an unprecedented level of energy generation between January and November; December is expected to boast similar numbers.
Once a month, the US Energy Information Administration publishes raw electrical grid data for two months prior. Dozens upon dozens of spreadsheets reveal virtually anything anyone could want to know about domestic energy generation, sale, and consumption: how much hydroelectric power a given state has generated, the average cost of energy by sector, how many barrels of fossil fuel were required to provide that month’s output, and so on. Thankfully, the administration pairs that data with a monthly report, making an overwhelming amount of information much easier to sift through.
In its January 2025 report, the administration offers grid data for November 2024, nearly bringing last year’s energy output analysis to a close. Between January and November, coal generation decreased by 5% compared with the previous year’s output. US solar farms generated 30% more energy during that period than in 2023. Wind farms meanwhile increased their output by 7.6% year over year—a seemingly modest jump that, when combined with solar’s big boost, will allow the two renewable energy sources to beat coal’s output across 2024.
Assuming December’s numbers will look much like the previous months’, wind and solar power will account for about 17% of the country’s energy output in 2024. Coal will account for roughly 15%. While fossil fuels are expected to make up 44% of US energy output in 2024 (outpacing all of the country’s clean energy sources combined), the fact that wind and solar inched ahead of coal is an environmentally encouraging one, especially when considered alongside last year’s energy demand.
Output only means so much without demand, and in the first 11 months of 2024, the US increased its strain on the energy grid by 2.8%. Fossil fuels and coal might have once been expected to fill that need, but renewables swooped in to provide a buffer, helping to compensate for increased demand while still managing to put a dent in coal. 
Before last year, US energy demand had remained relatively stagnant. It’s possible that transportation-related electrification, the increased need for indoor climate control, and data center growth could be behind the increase in usage. If that’s the case, demand will likely continue to climb over the next few years. Only time (and policy, and budgets, and technological advances, and land use strategies) will tell whether renewables will be able to keep up while continuing to take on carbon-belching energy sources. 
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