Sparklines

Solar and Wind Are Reaching for the Last 90% of the U.S. Power Market

They’ve both grown exponentially over the last 30 years. Now there’s just one more decimal place to go.

Photographer: Cate Dingley/Bloomberg
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Three decades ago, the U.S. passed an infinitesimal milestone: solar and wind power generated one-tenth of one percent of the country’s electricity. It took 18 years, until 2008, for solar and wind to reach 1% of U.S. electricity. It took 12 years for solar and wind to increase by another factor of 10. In 2020, wind and solar generated 10.5% of U.S. electricity.