https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26022021/clean-energy-renewable-coal-natural-gas/ Skip to content * Science * Politics & Policy * Justice * Fossil Fuels * Clean Energy * Today's Climate * Projects * About Us Open Menu Inside Climate News Pulitzer Prize-winning, nonpartisan reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet. Donate Close Menu Search Search for: [ ] [Search] * Science * Politics & Policy * Justice * Fossil Fuels * Clean Energy * Today's Climate * Projects * About Us * Newsletters Topics * Activism * Arctic * Business & Finance * Climate Law & Liability * Climate Treaties * Denial & Misinformation * Environment & Health * Extreme Weather * Food & Agriculture * Fracking * Pipelines * Regulation * Super-Pollutants * Wildfires Information * About * Jobs & Freelance * Reporting Network * Impact Statement * Contact * Whistleblowers * Memberships Publications * E-Books * Documents Clean Energy A Clean Energy Milestone: Renewables Pulled Ahead of Coal in 2020 Low costs of wind and solar power helped renewables pass coal in electricity generation; gas remains the leader. [Gearino2-150x150] By Dan Gearino February 26, 2021 Employees of the Goldbecksolar company stand in a solar park. Credit: Jens Buttner/picture alliance via Getty Images Employees of the Goldbecksolar company stand in a solar park. Credit: Jens Buttner/picture alliance via Getty Images Related * Inside Clean Energy: Real Talk From a Utility CEO About Coal Power Heavy equipment moves coal into piles at PacifiCorp's Hunter coal fired power pant outside of Castle Dale, Utah on Nov. 14, 2019. credit: George Frey/AFP via Getty Images * Inside Clean Energy: The Era of Fossil Fuel Power Plants Is Rapidly Receding. Here Is Their Life Expectancy PacifiCorp's Hunter coal fired power pant releases steam as it burns coal outside of Castle Dale, Utah on Nov. 14, 2019. Credit: George Frey/AFP via Getty Images * Inside Clean Energy: Four Charts Tell the Story of the Post-Covid Energy Transition Solar panels work in an integrated power station in Yancheng city, in Jiangsu province, on Oct. 14, 2020. Credit: Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images Share this article * * * * In a year of pandemic illness and chaotic politics, there also was a major milestone in the transition to clean energy: U.S. renewable energy sources for the first time generated more electricity than coal. The continuing rise of wind and solar power, combined with the steady performance of hydroelectric power, was enough for renewable energy sources to surge ahead of coal, according to 2020 figures released this week by the Energy Information Administration. "It's very significant that renewables have overtaken coal," said Robbie Orvis, director of energy policy design at the think tank Energy Innovation. "It's not a surprise. It was trending that way for years. But it's a milestone in terms of tracking progress." Newsletters We deliver climate news to your inbox like nobody else. Every day or once a week, our original stories and digest of the web's top headlines deliver the full story, for free. * [ ] Today's ClimateWeekdays Our no-nonsense daily digest of the day's must-read headlines from around the web, curated by our expert staff. * [ ] Breaking News Daily Don't miss a beat. Get a daily email of our original, groundbreaking stories written by our national network of award-winning reporters. * [ ] ICN Weekly Saturdays Our #1 newsletter delivers the week's climate and energy news - our original stories and top headlines from around the web. * [ ] Inside Clean Energy Thursdays Dan Gearino's habit-forming weekly take on how to understand the energy transformation reshaping our world. Email Address [ ] * [ ] I agree to the terms of service and privacy policy. [ ] [Sign Up] Yet renewables remain behind the market leader, natural gas, which rose again in 2020 and is now far ahead of all other energy sources. The shifting market shows that electricity producers are responding to the low costs of gas, wind and solar and are backing away from coal because of high costs and concerns about emissions. But energy analysts and clean energy advocates say that market forces are going to need an additional push from federal and state policies if the country is to cut emissions enough to avoid the most damaging effects of climate change. "All those sources, natural gas, solar and wind, are displacing coal as a matter of economics in addition to regulatory pressure and threats to coal," said Karl Hausker, a senior fellow in the climate program at the World Resources Institute, a research organization that focuses on sustainability. [USPowerGenerationChart600px] "The other winner in this competition has been natural gas, which has lower emissions (than coal) from a climate point of view, which is good, but is basically beating coal economically," he said. "We can't rely on growth in gas with unabated emissions for much longer. We will need to either replace the natural gas or capture the carbon that gas emits." Coal was the country's leading electricity source as recently as 2015, and has fallen 42 percent since then, as measured in electricity generation. Energy companies have been closing coal-fired power plants, and the ones that remain have been running less often than before. Keep Environmental Journalism Alive ICN provides award-winning, localized climate coverage free of charge and advertising. We rely on donations from readers like you to keep going. Donate Now You will be redirected to ICN's donation partner. Renewables have been gaining on coal for a while, to the point that, in April 2019, renewables were ahead of coal in an EIA monthly report for the first time. In 2020, renewables came out ahead in seven of 12 months, with coal still leading in the summer months with the highest electricity demand, and in December. The coronavirus pandemic helped to undercut coal because the slowdown in the economy led to a decrease in electricity demand. Since many coal plants have high costs of operation, those were often the plants that companies chose not to run. Renewables didn't just pass coal, the EIA figures showed. They also passed nuclear, although nuclear plant output has been fairly steady in recent years. The reasons behind the gains by renewables include low costs and policies by cities, states and companies to invest in renewable energy. [USRenewableGenerationChart600px-1] The decrease in costs has been most striking for solar. The levelized cost of utility-scale solar, which takes into account the costs of development and operation, has gone from $359 per megawatt-hour in 2009 to $37 per megawatt-hour in 2020, according to the investment bank Lazard. The changes in the electricity market are helping to cut emissions, but the market is still not moving fast enough, Orvis said. He was the author of a report from Energy Innovation this week that used an open-source U.S. policy simulator to design a scenario in which the United States could cut emissions enough to be on a path to net-zero emissions by 2050. "What we're talking about is getting policies in place to enforce the trend that we've seen and accelerate it," he said, about the rising use of renewable energy. [Gearino2-300x300] Dan Gearino Clean Energy Reporter, Midwest, National Environment Reporting Network Dan Gearino covers the midwestern United States, part of ICN's National Environment Reporting Network. His coverage deals with the business side of the clean-energy transition and he writes ICN's Inside Clean Energy newsletter. He came to ICN in 2018 after a nine-year tenure at The Columbus Dispatch, where he covered the business of energy. Before that, he covered politics and business in Iowa and in New Hampshire. He grew up in Warren County, Iowa, just south of Des Moines, and lives in Columbus, Ohio. * * Newsletters We deliver climate news to your inbox like nobody else. Every day or once a week, our original stories and digest of the web's top headlines deliver the full story, for free. * [ ] Today's Climate * [ ] Breaking News * [ ] ICN Weekly * [ ] Inside Clean Energy Email Address [ ] * [ ] I agree to the terms of service and privacy policy. [ ] [Sign Up] Related Heavy equipment moves coal into piles at PacifiCorp's Hunter coal fired power pant outside of Castle Dale, Utah on Nov. 14, 2019. credit: George Frey/AFP via Getty Images Inside Clean Energy: Real Talk From a Utility CEO About Coal Power By Dan Gearino PacifiCorp's Hunter coal fired power pant releases steam as it burns coal outside of Castle Dale, Utah on Nov. 14, 2019. Credit: George Frey/AFP via Getty Images Inside Clean Energy: The Era of Fossil Fuel Power Plants Is Rapidly Receding. Here Is Their Life Expectancy By Dan Gearino Solar panels work in an integrated power station in Yancheng city, in Jiangsu province, on Oct. 14, 2020. Credit: Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images Inside Clean Energy: Four Charts Tell the Story of the Post-Covid Energy Transition By Dan Gearino Most Popular The jet stream wind speeds over North America. Credit: NASA Polar Vortex: How the Jet Stream and Climate Change Bring on Cold Snaps By Bob Berwyn U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM), at the U.S. Capitol in January 2019. What's On Interior's To-Do List? A Full Plate of Public Lands Issues--and Trump Rollbacks--for Deb Haaland By Judy Fahys Rolling waves in the sea at Woolacombe, North Devon, UK. Credit: Tim Graham/Getty Images Climate Change is Weakening the Ocean Currents That Shape Weather on Both Sides of the Atlantic By Bob Berwyn Clean Energy A Legacy of the New Deal, Electric Cooperatives Struggle to Democratize and Make a Green Transition FDR program to electrify rural America is now beset by expensive coal plants and often-hidebound governing boards, as members clamor for transparency and renewables. By James Bruggers How the Race for Renewable Energy is Reshaping Global Politics Inside Clean Energy: The Right and Wrong Lessons from the Texas Crisis President Roosevelt delivers a speech at the dedication of the U.S. Rural Electrification Project. Credit: Getty Images Keep Environmental Journalism Alive ICN provides award-winning climate coverage free of charge and advertising. We rely on donations from readers like you to keep going. Donate Now You will be redirected to ICN's donation partner. 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