page_title: Renewable energy in the United States
section_title: Renewable energy in the electricity sector
hierarchical_section_title: Renewable energy in the United States / Current trends / Renewable energy in the electricity sector
caption_attribution_description: English: 2008-2018 US Electric Energy Generation by Renewables
context_page_description: According to preliminary data from the US Energy Information Administration, renewable energy accounted for about 11% of total primary energy consumption and about 17% of the domestically produced electricity in the United States in 2018.
  Hydroelectric power is currently the largest producer of renewable electricity in the country, generating around 6.5% of the nation's total electricity in 2016 as well as 45.71% of the total renewable electricity generation.
  The United States is the fourth largest producer of hydroelectricity in the world after China, Canada and Brazil.
  The next largest share of renewable power was provided by wind power at 5.55% of total power production, amounting to 226.5 terawatt-hours during 2016. By January 2017, the United States nameplate generating capacity for wind power was 82,183 megawatts. Texas remained firmly established as the leader in wind power deployment, followed by Iowa and Oklahoma as of year end 2016.
  Solar power provides a growing share of electricity in the country, with over 50 GW of installed capacity generating about 1.3% of the country's total electricity supply in 2017, up from 0.9% the previous year.
context_section_description: Notes: 
  ¹ Total electricity energy generation by US utilities.
  ² Estimated Solar small scale photovoltaics US Generation
  ³ Sum of US utility generation and solar small scale generation
  ⁴ Solar utility generation and solar small scale estimate
  ⁵ Bio includes Wood, wood derived products, waste, landfill gas, and other.
  Renewable energy accounted for 14.94% of the domestically produced electricity in 2016 in the United States. This proportion has grown from just 7.7% in 2001, although the trend is sometimes obscured by large yearly variations in hydroelectric power generation. Most of the growth since 2001 can be seen in the expansion of wind generated power, and more recently, in the growth in solar generated power. Renewable energy in California is prominent, with around 29% of electricity coming from RPS-eligible renewable sources (including hydropower).
  The United States has some of the best renewable energy resources in the world, with the potential to meet a rising and significant share of the nation's energy demand. 
  A quarter of the country's land area has winds strong enough to generate electricity at the same price as natural gas and coal.
  Many of the new technologies that harness renewables—including wind, solar, geothermal, and biofuels—are, or soon will be, economically competitive with the fossil fuels that meet 85% of United States energy needs. Dynamic growth rates are driving down costs and spurring rapid advances in technologies. Wind power and solar power are becoming increasingly important relative to the older and more established hydroelectric power source. By 2016 wind power covered 37.23% of total renewable electricity production against 43.62% for hydroelectric power. The remaining share of power was generated by biomass at 10.27%, solar power at 6.03% and geothermal with 2.86% of total renewable generation.
  In 2015, Georgetown, Texas became one of the first American cities to be powered entirely by renewable energy, choosing to do so for financial stability reasons.
  The United States consumed about 4,000 TWh of electricity in 2012, and about 30,000 TWh (98 quadrillion BTU) of primary energy. Efficiency improvements are expected to reduce usage to 15,000 TWh by 2050.
caption: 2008-2018 Renewables
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