Here is a bit of encouraging news from the Energy Information Administration data. The chart above shows electricity production from three sources, hydroelectric, wind, and solar PV. Until 2019 hydroelectric was the fourth biggest generator of electricity. In 2019 wind generation surpassed hydro! Wind generation is expected to continue growing and expanding over the US countryside.
The chart also shows solar production that closely follows wind but about ten years behind. An apparent feature is that each method has an up and down aspect. For hydro this is about how much water flows year to year and quarter to quarter with spring and summer in the peaks. For wind the peaks are winter, spring and late fall. Solar is obvious with late spring through early fall being the peak. These patterns are complimentary with winter being strong for wind and weak for solar, and summer being weak for wind and strong for solar. Wonderful how that works!
To add perspective the second chart shows the total electric production along with the three renewable sources above. Our renewables are way down on the bottom. Hydro, wind, and solar combined currently p
rovide about 16% of our electricity and gas, coal, and nuclear combined provide about 80%.
The trends are good and all evidence says that wind and solar will continue to grow but we have a long way to go. We need some form of Green New Deal for renewables to make a difference in climate change in a reasonable time. In my view we need to increase wind and solar installation by a factor of ten at minimum.