(New York) Symbolic step, wind turbines generated more power in a single day than coal or nuclear in the United States for the first time, the American Energy Information Agency (EIA) said on Thursday.
Posted on April 14th
The total amount of gigawatt-hours of electricity they generated on March 29, 2017, leaving the country as the first source of natural gas, the agency described in the blog.
Wind turbines have already temporarily produced more power than coal or nuclear power, but neither has produced both at the same time.
However, it is not certain that this function will be repeated regularly in the short term.
The total capacity of the power that wind turbines can generate has already exceeded nuclear power since September 2019. But their consumption is intermittent and their load factor, i.e. the average operating rate is 35% in 2021 compared to 93. Specifies%, EIA for nuclear.
On March 29, the situation was particularly favorable, with winds particularly blowing that day.
And as power demand weakens in the spring, some coal or nuclear-powered generators are out of order.
These generators are also often asked to reduce their output on windy days to adjust supply to demand.
Also the EIA does not predict that monthly wind production will exceed coal or nuclear production in 2022 or 2023.
However, in the long run, with the growth of solar and wind, the EIA estimates that renewable energy will currently generate 21% to 44% of the United States electricity by 2050.
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