Infographic: Power Sources Diversify

As of 2023, 60 percent of U.S. power is still produced using fossil fuels, 19 percent with nuclear power, and 21 percent with renewables, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. All told, those sources generated a combined 4.18 trillion kilowatthours (kWh) in 2023, the majority of that by utility-scale facilities (at least 1 megawatt of electricity generation capacity), with another 73.62 billion kWh from small-scale solar photovoltaic systems.

In the renewables mix, solar is leading in new generating capacity, according to a new report from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie, Power & Renewables U.S. Solar Market Insight Q2 2024. About 55 percent of all new electric capacity in 2023 was solar, and SEIA expects that trend to continue through 2024.

Meanwhile, worldwide electricity production totaled 29,479 terawatthours (TWh) in 2023, reported the International Energy Agency. Similar to the situation in the U.S., about 60 percent was generated by fossil fuels (or 17,718 TWh). Nuclear- generated power only accounted for about 9 percent (or 2,685 TWh), but renewables were responsible for about 30 percent (or 8,911 TWh) of total worldwide electricity generation.