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Comment by rsj_hn | Hacker News Reader

From https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.ph...

We see that in 2018 coal produced 1,146,393 thousand Megawatts, which is a decrease of ~60,000 from 2017 (corrected!). Solar produced 66,604 thousand MW in 2018, an increase of ~13,000 from 2017.

In terms of percent of coal, the sources are:

  * solar 6%
  * hydro 25%
  * nuclear 70%
  * natural gas 100%
  * other renewables (mostly waste/biomass) 31%

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Why are you assuming other renewables is mostly waste/biomass? In the notes below the table, wind is cleary mentioned. My guesstimate would be that wind was a large proportion. I confirmed by checking wikipedia.

EIA Total for year was listed as 4,177,810 in 1000s of MWhr Other Renewables 354,445 in 1000s of MWhr

From wikepedia - national trends section graph https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_the_United_State...

2018 Wind power generated 274,962 in 1000s of MWhr. So makes up over 75% of other renewables. Chart shows wind has grown from 94,000 in 2009. Which combining with the EIA data, showing 143,388 in 2009, means most of the growth in non-solar renewables is from wind.

2017 had 1,205,835 thousand Megawatts of coal, so 2018 was a decrease of ~60,000. Not an increase of 20k.

Thanks, corrected!

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