How the Countries of the World are Generating Electricity
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“…How electricity generation has changed in recent decades for the world’s major power producers, both rich countries and rapidly-developing ones, helps explain today’s global picture and underscores the climate challenges ahead.
In the United States and much of Europe, fossil-fueled power generation has been declining for years, especially coal. It has even started to fall in coal-reliant Australia.
The rapid growth of renewable energy has played a major role.
Wind turbines and solar panels generated 22 percent of the European Union’s electricity last year, up from less than 1 percent two decades ago. The United States made 15 percent of its electricity from wind and solar energy last year, which is slightly more than the global average.
The boom of cheap renewable power helped replace coal-fired generation in Europe. In the United States, natural gas — which pollutes less than coal when burned, but still warms the climate — played a key role in coal’s decline, alongside quickly-growing wind and solar.
Lower overall electricity demand also contributed to the decline of fossil-fueled power.
Electricity use grew rapidly in rich countries like the United States and many European nations during the previous century, but started to plateau or even decline in the 2000s largely thanks to improved energy efficiency, as well as the outsourcing of heavy industries.
Yet neither the United States’ nor the European Union’s trajectories are currently on track to meet the world’s ambitious 1.5 degree Celsius climate goal. Both major power producers recently passed legislation aimed at ramping up renewable energy, but growing economic headwinds and other challenges threaten to slow down their transitions, even as energy experts say they need to accelerate….”
How Electricity is Changing, Country by Country, by Nadja Popovich, New York Times, Nov 20, 2023 [links removed][links removed]
