EIA expects renewables to account for 22% of US electricity generation in 2022

EIA publish short-term forecasts for five renewable energy sources: conventional hydropower, wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal. EIA based their forecasts for 2022’s annual values on their monthly historical survey data through May and forecasts for June through December.

Forecasts in their Short-Term Energy Outlook shows how EIA expects 11 electricity markets in the US will generate electricity. The two regions with the largest shares of renewable electricity generation during 2021 were the Northwest, where renewables accounted for half of the region’s electricity generation, and California, where renewables accounted for 44% of regional electricity generation. Both of these regions’ hydropower resources were constrained by droughts in 2021, but they still increased their renewable shares of electricity generation.

The Southwest Power Pool (SPP) region has had the most growth in the renewable share of electricity generation over the past decade, largely due to wind generation. In 2013, 13% of the region’s electricity generation came from renewables. That share increased to 40% in 2021, and the EIA expect it to rise to 44% in 2022.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, has also increased its renewable share from 10% in 2013 to 32% in 2022. ERCOT is the only electricity market region where the renewable electricity shape has transitioned from less than the US average from 2013 to present. Both SPP and ERCOT have added substantial generating capacity from wind turbines. Earlier this year, output from wind turbines in SPP and ERCOT contributed to wind becoming the second-highest source of electricity generation on a single day (29 March).

The share of electricity generation from renewable sources is lowest in three regions along the US East Coast: the PJM Interconnection in the Mid-Atlantic, the Southeast (SERC Reliability Corporation), and the Florida Reliability Co-ordinating Council. In each of these regions, the EIA expect the renewable share of electricity generation to remain below half of the national average through 2023. Natural gas and nuclear sources provide most of the electricity generation in the Southeast and Florida. In PJM, the prevalent generation sources have been natural gas and coal.

For more news and technical articles from the global renewable industry, read the latest issue of Energy Global magazine.

Energy Global's Summer 2022 issue

The Summer 2022 issue of Energy Global hosts an array of technical articles focusing on wind, solar, biofuels, green hydrogen, geothermal, and more. This issue also features a regional report discussing the outlook for renewables in the US.

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