• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
EXCLUSIVE: Hydrogen is Up, Pieridae is Out as German Chancellor Preps for Canada Visit August 15, 2022
Historic Climate Bill Passes U.S. House, Goes to Biden for Signature August 15, 2022
BREAKING: U.S. Senate Passes Historic $369B Climate Package August 7, 2022
Researchers Point To ‘Dangerously Unexplored’ Risk of Global Climate Catastrophe August 2, 2022
Koch Network Pressures Manchin, Sinema as Advocates Praise ‘Game Changing’ Climate Deal August 2, 2022
Next
Prev

U.S. Wind, Solar Post Record Growth in 2020 Despite Pandemic Restrictions, Job Losses

February 24, 2021
Reading time: 2 minutes

U.S. Department of Energy/Flickr

U.S. Department of Energy/Flickr

4
SHARES
 

United States solar and wind developers had a record year in 2020 despite punishing restrictions and job losses brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, ultimately rising to 20% of the country’s electricity production, according to new data released last week by Bloomberg New Energy Finance and the Business Council for Sustainable Energy.

The growth in the two renewables brought the electricity sources usually designated as zero-carbon, including hydropower and nuclear, up to 40% of U.S. electricity supply, Greentech Media reports. Coal-fired generation continued its fall, while fossil gas demand declined for the first time since 2009.

“It was a year of records but also resilience,” said Ethan Zindler, BloombergNEF’s head of Americas research. “I’ll be candid in saying about half-way through the year, things looked pretty dire.”

The first months of the pandemic were a tough time for the renewables, Greentech recalls, with manufacturers in Asia pausing production and U.S. shutdown orders putting a major crimp in construction and sales. Environmental Entrepreneurs said the industry last 67,000 jobs between February and December.

But “in the end, those struggles did not mute overall growth,” Greentech writes. BloombergNEF put new solar installations for the year at 16.5 gigawatts, well ahead of the 2019 record of 14.4 GW, while Wood Mackenzie calculated the 2020 figure at more than 19 GW. Wind added 17 gigawatts.

Gas-fired generation still made up 41% of the electricity mix, showing “how difficult it will be to erode the grip that fossil fuels have on the power industry, as President Biden has pledged to do,” Greentech says. “Though scientists recognize the need to make deep and immediate cuts to emissions, companies whose bottom lines are defined in part by selling natural gas continue to frame gas and renewables as complementary resources.”

“If you love renewables, you have to at least like natural gas,” said Lisa Alexander, senior vice president of corporate affairs and chief sustainability officer at gas wholesaler Sempra Energy. “We don’t see it as oppositional. We see it as both systems working in tandem to decarbonize.”

After the significant role gas played in the first phase of grid decarbonization, with its accent on shutting down coal plants, BloombergNEF’s Zindler told Greentech it’s “an open question” how quickly those same utilities will abandon coal for clean renewables. “I think it’s going to be one of the great, interesting challenges of the next four years and beyond,” he said.



in Clean Electricity Grid, Climate & Society, Coal, Community Climate Finance, Demand & Distribution, Ending Emissions, Fossil Fuels, Hydropower, Jurisdictions, Nuclear, Oil & Gas, Renewable Energy, Solar, United States, Wind

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

TGEGASENGINEERING/Wikimedia Commons
Energy Politics

EXCLUSIVE: Hydrogen is Up, Pieridae is Out as German Chancellor Preps for Canada Visit

August 15, 2022
748
Steve Jurvetson/flickr
International Security & War

The Other Kind of Climate Change: Even a ‘Limited’ Nuclear War Would Trigger Starvation, Kill Billions

August 15, 2022
2
/Pikist
United States

Historic Climate Bill Passes U.S. House, Goes to Biden for Signature

August 15, 2022
221

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

TGEGASENGINEERING/Wikimedia Commons

EXCLUSIVE: Hydrogen is Up, Pieridae is Out as German Chancellor Preps for Canada Visit

August 15, 2022
748
Brocken Inaglory/wikimedia commons

State-Wide Megastorm Driven by Global Heating Could Drench California for a Month

August 15, 2022
437
/Pikist

Historic Climate Bill Passes U.S. House, Goes to Biden for Signature

August 15, 2022
221
Vinaykumar8687/WikimediaCommons

Solar On Track for ‘Staggering’ 30% Growth This Year

August 15, 2022
157
UK Black Tech/wikimedia commons

U.S. Tech Workers Leaving High-Paying Jobs to Focus on Climate Crisis

August 15, 2022
122
United States Marine Core/Wikimedia Commons

Distributed Energy Gains Ground With Mobile Microgrids, Vehicle-to-Grid Technology

August 15, 2022
114

Recent Posts

Steve Jurvetson/flickr

The Other Kind of Climate Change: Even a ‘Limited’ Nuclear War Would Trigger Starvation, Kill Billions

August 15, 2022
2
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Arctic Warms 4 Times Faster than Global Average, Surpassing Estimates 

August 15, 2022
116
rawpixel

Common Medications Foil Body’s Ability to Cope with Hot Weather

August 15, 2022
92
Max Pixel

Slashing Nitrogen Dioxide Pollution Can Improve Crop Yields, Study Finds

August 15, 2022
50
David Hawgood/Geograph

E-Bikes a ‘Faster and Fairer’ Emissions Solution than Electric Cars

August 15, 2022
103
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region/wikimedia commons

Researchers Study Carbon Loss, Forest Impacts of Northwest Territories ‘Zombie Fires’

August 15, 2022
23
Next Post
U.S. Department of State/Flickr

Russian Veto Blocks UN Security Council Action on Climate

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}