American wind energy beat out coal this spring

The form of renewable electricity generated more power in April 2024 than coal fired generation

In the US in March and April, electricity generated by wind energy turbines set a new record and in April, it simultaneously exceeded the power generated by coal-fired plants, according to recently released data.

This was the first time in a year that the achievement was made

Wind energy generation in the United States surpassed coal-fired electricity generation for the first time in April 2023. That said, it didn’t manage to do that again until April of this year.  When it happened in 2023, the renewable power generation managed to stay ahead of coal for two consecutive months before dropping below it again until this spring.  The spring season is the time of the year that the most wind powered electricity generation occurs in the United States.

By March 2024, there were 45.9 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of wind electricity production installations.  Comparatively, there were 38.4 GWh from coal-fired power plants. Coal-fired generation dropped to 37.2 GWh in April 2024.

Wind energy took off in the Spring

At the same time in April, wind generation rose to a record 47.7 GWh.  That said, during the first quarter of 2024, coal-fired electricity generation overall was 15 percent higher in the United States than the electricity generated by wind energy during the same quarter. 

Recent electricity generation from coal and wind is notably different than it was a couple of decades ago.  Twenty years ago in March 2004, wind energy was generating 1.3 GWh of electricity, while coal-fired generation was producing 154.3 GWh.

Throughout the years, the renewable electricity source has been increasing its capacity and replacing a growing amount of the power being produced by coal-fired plants.  Coal plants have been retired over the last quarter century as cleaner facilities such as hydropower, wind and solar have been seeing many new installations. 

Replacing coal

Over the last 25 years, electricity generated by coal-fired plants has fallen from 315.1 GW in 2000 to 177.1 GW in April 2024.  On the other hand, wind has risen from 2.4 GW in 2000 to 150.1 GW in by April 2024.