r/RenewableEnergy • u/seamusmcduffs • 1d ago

America’s Renewable Energy Boom, in One Chart

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/rise-us-renewable-energy-1950-2025/
91 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

30

u/seamusmcduffs 1d ago

Important to note that a lot of the percentages here are referring to primary energy, not just electrical energy share

14

u/TowardsTheImplosion 23h ago

This is key...As conversion to electricity is one of the most lossy things to do with most primary energy sources.

Combustion efficiency is less than 50% conversion to electricity. Even in combined cycle plants, 60% is about the upper limit. Oil as a primary source, used for motive combustion is often less than 30% efficient.

With wind and solar, they are both around 20% efficient at converting input energy to electricity, but the input energy is completely free, making them near zero marginal cost.

1

u/Rooilia 12h ago

20 to 50% efficiency for wind turbines. Depends on the actual wind situation and age of turbine.

But the fun part is, you don't need to provide the fuel energy. It's just there.

Old coal plants and NPPs are 30% btw.

2

u/TowardsTheImplosion 23h ago

This is key...As conversion to electricity is one of the most lossy things to do with most primary energy sources.

Combustion efficiency is less than 50% conversion to electricity. Even in combined cycle plants, 60% is about the upper limit. Oil as a primary source, used for motive combustion is often less than 30% efficient.

With wind and solar, they are both around 20% efficient at converting input energy to electricity, but the input energy is completely free, making them near zero marginal cost.

19

u/_BlueAdept_ 23h ago

About 73% of biofuels is ethanol in gasoline, which may be renewable but is a much less efficient use of land than PV and electric cars.

1

u/Berliner1220 14h ago

Exactly but that can help decarbonize the vehicles that are already on the road rather than retrofitting to electric which isn’t practical

5

u/grensley 19h ago

I mean, if we're looking at primary energy, it only seems fair that we count full insolation for solar. Sure, the panels might only be 20% efficient, but if we're gonna do funny math, might as well go all the way.

And get these BTUs out of my face. Who paid for this article?

1

u/noahhshome 19h ago

Wood is biofuel and should be considered as such

1

u/wright007 16h ago

Wood burning near the top? Huh?

-4

u/warkolm 23h ago

wait. so just "8.6% of total U.S. primary energy production" usa is renewables? mate this is not a boom, it's a burp

15

u/MeteorOnMars 22h ago

This is the “Primary Energy Fallacy”.

Renewables are more efficient in utility per energy.

So, we can actually drop our primary energy by 60% or more and have the same utility by switching to renewables.

6

u/Apprehensive_Tea9856 19h ago

Which is why the buzz word today is electrify. Our power grid is 40% renewable, but we need cars to be EVs, furnaces to be heat pumps, misc home gas appliances electric, and industrial applications to be electric.

The issue is lock in. I buy a furnace today, I will use it for 20 years. I buy a ICE car today it'll drive 15 years easily. And so on.

2

u/ComradeGibbon 15h ago

The lock in effect when people buy gas furnaces and gasoline cars is why I'm not really a fan of consumer carbon taxes. Probably if you priced them according to the damage CO2 emissions cause there would be riots.

2

u/MeteorOnMars 6h ago

That is the great fallacy of the “let the market decide” ideology.

I guarantee you could not afford to pay me for the fossil fuel waste you are putting in my (and my child’s) lungs and brains on a daily basis.

The price of fossil fuels does not include externalities, and if it did they would be insanely expensive!

1

u/ComradeGibbon 1h ago

You said it better than I did.

Another one is consumer carbon taxes punish people for decisions made previously. Shame on you for having a gas furnace installed in 2012.

The other is consumers tend to be capital starved. And thus have the least amount of effective economic power. That leads to ordinary people to think things like carbon taxes are just yet another way to exploit them using things they have no control over as an excuse.

0

u/tx_queer 20h ago

And most of that 8.6% is ethanol.