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Last Updated on: 20th April 2025, 12:00 am
The cleantech revolution continues on — every … single … day. It seems like such a short time that we’ve gone from the huge milestone of solar and wind power providing more than 50% of new power capacity additions in the US to solar and wind power now providing almost 100% of new power capacity additions in the US. Though, even during all of that growth, the difficult thing to look at is how slowly it takes to transition the actual electricity generation supply. So, it’s particularly uplifting to see that last month, we crossed another big milestone — less than 50% of US electricity was produced by fossil fuels for the first time on record.
Naturally, while solar and wind power alone didn’t provide the majority of the country’s electricity (yet), they did reach new monthly records. Together, they accounted for 24.4% of total US electricity generation. The growth just keeps going steady, or even speeding up. Electricity from solar power grew by 37% in March year over year (by 8.3 terawatt-hours) while electricity from wind power grew by 12% (or 5.7 terawatt-hours). Looking at 2024 as a whole, solar and wind power combined for 17% of US electricity generation. So, even compared to last year, solar and wind are in whole new territory.
“In March 2025, fossil fuels accounted for less than 50% (49.2%) of electricity generated, for the first month on record. This surpasses the previous monthly record low of 51% set in April 2024,” Ember writes. Electricity from fossil fuels, meanwhile, dropped by 2.5% (-4.3 TWh).
Ember notes that fossil fuels accounted for 65% of US electricity generation a decade ago (in March 2015). I actually remember reporting on that. (How time flies!) The pace of change seemed so glacial back then, but it’s a notable accomplishment to get fossil fuels’ share down from 65% to 49% in a decade. Could it be faster? Certainly!
Solar power, meanwhile went from 1% of US electricity to 9.2% of US electricity in that decade. Again, when I was producing monthly electricity generation reports and we were at just 1% for solar, it was easy to be pessimistic and sour, but we were excited to highlight solar power’s rapid growth and some optimistic long-term projections. (I actually recall working on a report that included that 1% figure for solar while riding on a tram in Poland.) Time has shown that we would make enormous progress, and the coming decade will again show a rapid rise in solar power’ share of US electricity generation — in fact, it should gobble up market share even faster.
“This is a first signal that the US is approaching a tipping point where clean power takes the lead over fossil generation, and where the importance of coal and gas inevitably starts to fade. Wind and solar power are pushing fossil fuels out of the mix. The reality on the ground is not one of a return to fossil fuels in the US, it’s the continued growth of solar and wind power that will be the dominant driver of electricity generation growth in the US,” Nicolas Fulghum, Senior Data Analyst at Ember, added. I like the quote a lot — that’s why I included it — but I have to say this isn’t the first signal. We’ve been seeing signals that this is where we’re headed for at least a decade.
Stay tuned. The fun is only beginning!
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