Good news as natural gas, coal, and solar see the biggest changes.
Just before the holiday break, the US Energy Information Agency released data on the country’s electrical generation. Because of delays in reporting, the monthly data runs through October, so it doesn’t provide a complete picture of the changes we’ve seen in 2023.
But some of the trends now seem locked in for the year: wind and solar are likely to be in a dead heat with coal, and all carbon-emissions-free sources combined will account for roughly 40 percent of US electricity production.
That’s a little disappointing. Hydro seems to always be forgotten amongst renewable sources. Granted, it’s the most location specific of the renewables, but still.
Hydro is often environmentally destructive in its own way, though. Building dams may be controversial when it upsets river and lake ecosystems, and may even deprive some folks of what could be a primary food source.
An example that came up recently.
It might also be environmentally precarious but I’m interested in seeing some of the ocean current and heat differential and other non river hydro solutions being proposed.
I just saw an interesting video about a turbine-less hydro generator that also doesn’t require a lot of head: https://youtu.be/ArQE3SB0kyM?si=9a6DvG5g3D4bJiQl
As water sources dry up, I can’t imagine production won’t drop. And building any more dams would be politically controversial.