US electricity generation by source: how gas and renewables replaced coal

Key takeaways

Natural gas generated 1,870 terawatt-hours of US electricity in 2024, 44 percent of the six main sources charted, nearly three times coal's remaining share.
Coal fell from its 2007 peak of 2,016 TWh to 652 in 2024, a 68 percent decline, and 2024 was the first year wind and solar together (672 TWh) generated more than coal did.
Nuclear and hydro barely moved for two decades (nuclear near 780 TWh, hydro near 250), so the entire recomposition happened between coal, gas, wind, and solar while total output grew 19 percent.

What's happening

The chart stacks two decades of US electricity generation by source, one band per fuel, yearly. In 2001 coal was over half the picture: 1,904 TWh against natural gas at 639. In 2024 the bands have traded places: gas at 1,870, coal at 652, and the wind and solar bands, invisible at the start of the window, now sum to 672.

That last comparison is a milestone. 2024 is the first year wind and solar together out-generated coal, 672 TWh to 652. The two crossed a fuel that was still roughly a third of the charted mix as recently as 2016.

-68%

Coal generation's fall from its 2007 peak of 2,016 TWh to 652 in 2024. Natural gas absorbed most of the loss, growing from 897 to 1,870 TWh over the same years; wind and solar took the rest.

What replaced coal

Mostly gas, then renewables. Gas generation nearly tripled across the window, 639 TWh in 2001 to 1,870 in 2024, and its band crossed coal's in 2016 (1,378 against 1,239). Wind went from 7 TWh in 2001 to 452 in 2024; solar from about 1 to 220, nearly ninefold just since 2015.

What did not move matters as much. Nuclear held near 780 TWh the entire window and hydro near 250, so the two firm, low-carbon workhorses contributed no growth. Every terawatt-hour of new demand plus every terawatt-hour coal gave up was covered by gas, wind, and solar.

What the bands show

Played across time, the chart is three eras. Through 2007, coal's band widens to its 2,016 TWh peak while gas grows modestly. From 2008 to 2016, gas surges as shale supply gets cheap, and the coal band keeps narrowing until the 2016 crossover. From 2016 on, the renewable bands do the compounding: wind doubles, solar grows sixfold, and by 2024 the grid's growth itself returns, total output up 3 percent in a year to 4,219 TWh, with gas and renewables splitting the new demand.

What to watch

Three bands carry the next chapter. Whether solar's series keeps its 30-percent-a-year rhythm as the base gets large. Whether coal's slide, 2,016 TWh at its peak to 652, has found its floor. And whether the gas band, 44 percent of the charted mix and still widening, keeps absorbing demand growth, because a grid this dependent on one fuel moves with that fuel's price.

Common questions

What is the largest source of electricity in the US?

Natural gas, at 1,870 terawatt-hours in 2024, which is 44 percent of the six main sources charted here. Nuclear is second at 782 TWh, coal third at 652.

Have wind and solar passed coal?

Yes, in 2024 for the first time: wind (452 TWh) and solar (220) together generated 672 TWh against coal's 652. As recently as 2016, coal out-generated the pair roughly five to one.

When did natural gas overtake coal?

2016, at 1,378 TWh to coal's 1,239. Coal had led every year before that in this window; gas has led every year since, and the gap has widened to nearly three to one.

Why did coal decline?

The data shows the displacement: coal fell from 2,016 TWh in 2007 to 652 in 2024 while gas nearly doubled and wind and solar grew from almost nothing to 672 TWh. Cheap gas after the shale boom and falling wind and solar costs made coal plants the ones to retire.

Data: US electricity net generation by source (EIA, monthly, summed to calendar years, 2001 to 2024), six series from the Kitegraph library: coal, natural gas, nuclear, conventional hydro, wind, and solar, all sectors. 2025 is excluded as incomplete. Petroleum, biomass, geothermal, and other small sources are not charted; shares quoted are of the six charted sources.