In Brief:
- Electricity generation from renewable sources reached a new high in 2024.
- Texas was far and away the leader among U.S. states.
- Four out of the five states generating the largest share of renewable electricity are red states.
Renewable electricity generation reached a new peak in 2024, with wind and solar overtaking coal for the first time. In addition, the year-on-year increase in solar generation was greater than for gas generation.
Over the past 10 years, only natural gas and renewable generation use have increased. While the share from natural gas remains larger, the pace of growth in renewables is much greater (see graph).
This month, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that wind and solar combined accounted for almost 27 percent of all electricity generation last year, increasing 21 percent from the year before.
California may have the nation’s highest profile as a clean energy advocate, but last year more than twice as much renewable energy was generated in Texas. “A lot” of the credit for the state’s success goes to leaders at the municipal utility Austin Energy, says Travis County Commissioner Brigid Shea.
They played an important role in advocating for a renewable portfolio standard for the state, she says — a requirement that a specified share of power sold by utilities come from renewable sources. Adopted in 1999, it set targets for renewable energy capacity which applied to suppliers in proportion to their share of energy sales. The 2025 goal set at adoption was achieved by 2009.
Shea was a member of the Austin City Council when the city partnered with Austin Energy and the Lower Colorado River Authority on the state’s first wind power project. The venture was fought as a waste of money, she recalls, but today Texas leads the country in wind energy, accounting for more than a fourth of all electricity from that source.
After California, the remaining states in the top-five producers were Iowa, Oklahoma and Kansas. Iowa was the first state to establish a renewable portfolio standard, in 1983.
Iowa was the leader in regard to the share of all electricity generated from renewable sources, almost 65 percent. Twelve states achieved a third or more. Despite being the leading producer, Texas fell just short of this (see map).
With some exceptions, renewable electricity is a significantly smaller part of the mix east of the Mississippi. Wind and solar are the most cost-efficient sources of new electric generation, even without subsidies from state or federal government. In 2024, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy projected that solar electricity production in the region would double by 2027.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the country has enough wind, solar, hydropower and other renewable resources to generate 100 times the annual power needs of Americans.
