{"id":762372,"date":"2020-05-29T16:45:31","date_gmt":"2020-05-29T20:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=762372"},"modified":"2020-05-29T16:45:31","modified_gmt":"2020-05-29T20:45:31","slug":"2019-was-first-year-since-1880s-that-us-coal-lost-to-renewable-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=762372","title":{"rendered":"2019 was first year since 1880s that US coal lost to renewable energy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"rss-wrap\">\n<figure class=\"intro-image intro-left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/steam_train_mark_rickaby-800x533-1.jpg\" alt=\"2019 was first year since 1880s that US coal lost to renewable energy\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\" style=\"font-size:0.8em\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/steam_train_mark_rickaby.jpg\" class=\"enlarge-link\" data-height=\"1365\" data-width=\"2048\">Enlarge<\/a> (credit: <a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"caption-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/markrickaby\/30123942628\/\">Mark Rickaby<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<div><a name=\"page-1\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Two weeks ago, <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/science\/2020\/05\/2020-looks-like-the-year-us-renewables-first-out-produce-coal\/\">we covered<\/a> a US Energy Information Administration (EIA) projection that renewable wind, solar, and hydroelectric power would top coal for total electricity generation in 2020. That was particularly believable given that renewables had beat coal in daily generation every day going back to March 24. As it happens, that daily streak finally came to an end this week, as coal picked up amid rising demand and a couple low days for wind. Coal likely <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/beta\/electricity\/gridmonitor\/expanded-view\/daily_generation_mix\/US48\/US48\/RegionBaEnergymix-14\/edit\">topped renewables on Tuesday<\/a>, although it\u2019s possible that rooftop solar generation (not included in EIA\u2019s daily data) extended the run until Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>But the EIA also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/todayinenergy\/detail.php?id=43895\">released some numbers<\/a> Thursday that highlight a related and interesting piece of trivia: if you include energy use beyond the electric sector and all types of renewable energy, renewables actually beat out coal <em>last year<\/em>. And to find the last time that was true, you have to go all the way back to the 1880s.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image shortcode-img center large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/eia_fig2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/eia_fig2-640x290-1.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\" style=\"font-size:0.8em\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/eia_fig2.jpg\" class=\"caption-link\" rel=\"nofollow\" \/> (credit: <a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"caption-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/todayinenergy\/detail.php?id=43895\">US EIA<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>This comparison includes biofuels (like ethanol and biodiesel), wood-burning, and waste incineration or landfill gas. And beyond electricity, it adds in energy used by industry, residential and commercial buildings, and transportation\u2014uses where coal plays little or no role.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/?p=1679925#p3\">Read 3 remaining paragraphs<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/?p=1679925&amp;comments=1\">Comments<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.arstechnica.com\/~ff\/arstechnica\/index?a=DGc3wzJ1rj4:vgPx1mThZ3w:V_sGLiPBpWU\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.arstechnica.com\/~ff\/arstechnica\/index?a=DGc3wzJ1rj4:vgPx1mThZ3w:F7zBnMyn0Lo\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.arstechnica.com\/~ff\/arstechnica\/index?a=DGc3wzJ1rj4:vgPx1mThZ3w:qj6IDK7rITs\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.arstechnica.com\/~ff\/arstechnica\/index?a=DGc3wzJ1rj4:vgPx1mThZ3w:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#013;<br \/>\n&#013;<br \/>\nSource: Ars Technica &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/?p=1679925\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2019 was first year since 1880s that US coal lost to renewable energy<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Enlarge (credit: Mark Rickaby) Two weeks ago, we covered a US Energy Information Administration (EIA) projection that renewable wind, solar, and hydroelectric power would top coal for total electricity generation in 2020. That was particularly believable given that renewables had &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=762372\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":762373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,110],"tags":[73],"class_list":["post-762372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ars-technica","category-unfiltered-rss","tag-ars-technica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=762372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/762373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=762372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=762372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=762372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}