According to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), renewable energy sources will pass coal in terms of U.S. electricity generation in 2021.
As their chart below shows, each of the sources will produce around 800 billion kilowatts of electricity in 2021.
Included in the IEEFA's definition of renewables are utility-scale biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar and wind, plus small-scale solar.
The fastest-growing of these sources by far are wind and solar. They are forecast to continue growing at the pace of the past couple of years (around 20% for solar and 10% for wind).
Coal generation, as the chart below shows, has been rapidly declining since it's peak year in 2010.
Simply put, coal is not economically competitive with other sources. This even though many of the costs of coal (pollution, worker health problems, etc.) are not included in its price.
As cheaper and more efficient ways to store energy become available, there will be even less need for coal plants.
Expect coal's rapid decline to continue. Also, expect solar's growth to continue.
This is good news for both the economy and the environment. Solar energy creates more jobs (and better jobs) than the coal industry as well as being much better for the environment.
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