The US hit a major renewable energy milestone last month when wind power overtook nuclear and coal to become the nation's second-highest source of electricity - if only for a single day.
On March 29, wind turbines generated over 2,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity, making them the second-highest energy producer for the first time since the Energy Information Administration (EIA) began gathering data.
In a tweet confirmed by the EIA, E&E reported Ben Storrow announced the exciting news. He added that, while wind turbines were producing more electricity than ever, they were still trailing behind natural gas which holds the top spot as the US' number one electricity producer.
"Confirmed: That was the first *day* that wind was the 2nd-largest source of U.S. electricity generation, according to our data (going back to July 1, 2018)," the EIA wrote in response to Storrow's observation.
The March 29 figures are a huge win for renewable energy resources and a massive improvement on last year, when wind was the fourth-largest electricity source in the US behind natural gas, coal, and nuclear power per EIA.
However, the US is still lagging behind much of Europe in its overreliance on non-renewable energy sources. According to the International Renewables Energy Agency, the EU and UK had a joint capacity to produce almost 49% of their electricity from renewable sources in 2020. The US, by comparison, could generate just 25% of the electricity renewably in the same year.
Meanwhile, one European country in particular outstrips the US when it comes to wind energy: Germany.
In February alone, windmills in Germany generated a whopping 20.6 terawatt-hours of energy, which made up 45% of its total energy for the month according to Rystand Energy. Not only that, but the EIA estimates that Germany got 24% of its electricity from wind in 2020 while in the same year the US got a mere 8% of electricity from wind turbines.
But that could all be set to change. With more than 100 planned offshore and onshore wind projects in the pipeline, and plans to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy alone, the Biden administration is doing its best to make up lost ground, CNN reports.
Let's hope we see more of this in our future!