How Wind and Solar Boosted U.S. Renewable Electricity

Electricity generated from wind turbines is becoming more prevalent in the U.S., having surpassed electricity generated from hydropower in 2019. This makes wind power the largest single source of renewable energy in the country, followed by hydro electricity and solar power, according to numbers from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. While hydropower has remained a stable part of U.S. electricity generation, wind and solar power - generated in the electric power sector, but also by citizens and other commercial or industrial actors - has been growing quickly over the course of the past two decades.

Hydro power has struggled to achieve growth because the sector relies on large-scale projects (like the Hoover Dam). Big dam projects haven’t been built in the U.S. for a while, in part because of the difficulty of such an undertaking considering current environmental protection laws, therefore giving easier-to-scale wind power the chance to get ahead. Like hydropower, electricity generation from biomass and geothermal energy have changed little of the past 20 years while their share of the U.S. electricity market remains a smaller one.