I am beyond excited to share the following graph.
(To note, after posting I realize this includes nuclear).
Note, March is a special month and called a ‘shoulder season‘. The following bullets are taken directly from this Canary website:
- Milder temperatures mean people use less energy to heat and cool their homes, so power demand tends to contract.
- That has historically made shoulder seasons — the fall version runs from September to November — a good time to take fossil-fuel and nuclear power plants offline for maintenance.
- Meanwhile, wind production peaks in the spring, and solar production comes more alive with the longer days of stronger sun. Last month, solar and wind alone met over 24% of overall U.S. power demand.
But the signs point to our shared success of generating our own local, contemporary electricity and not relying on a trust fund of fossilized energy!
Taken directly from the EMBER website:
- The milestone is the result of a long term decline of fossil generation in the US power sector, with wind and solar growing substantially over the last decade. Ten years ago, in March 2015, fossil generation still provided 65% of US electricity generation. Wind and solar generation stood at just 5.7%. Since then, the share of wind and solar power has more than quadrupled.
- Solar power is set to account for more than half of new generating capacity installed in the US in 2025, with more than a third of new solar panels going to Texas. Solar’s rise has been extraordinary. Ten years ago, in March 2015, solar power accounted for just 1% of US electricity generation. By March 2025, this had grown to 9.2%.
- Last month Ember published a special report, US Electricity 2025, on the changes and trends in the US power sector last year. It found that solar was the fastest and largest growing source of electricity in the US in 2024. Wind and solar power combined rose to a record 17% of the US electricity mix in 2024, overtaking coal for the first time which accounted for 15%.
