The message of this meme used to be much more true than it is today.
The U.S. electrical grid is gradually growing less dependent upon coal, particularly in many states that have higher rates of electric car usage.
Ten states and the District of Columbia have an above the national average share of battery electric vehicles market share (the same rankings hold true if you look at the market share of battery electric vehicles and plug in hybrid electric vehicles combined).
Six of those states have electrical girds derived less than 10% from coal, including three of those states with no coal powering their electrical grids at all. California, Massachusetts and Vermont use no coal. Washington, Oregon and Nevada used less than 10% coal.
The District of Columbia, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, and Maryland have power grids that are less than 90% coal-free.
The average share of electricity generated from coal in the US has dropped from 52.8% in 1997 to below 22% since 2020. Firm plans are in place to reduce that share going forward.
In 2018, 16 of the 50 Federal States of the US had either no coal power in their power production for the public power supply (California, Idaho, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont), less than 5% coal in power production (Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Delaware) or between 5 and 10% (Alaska, Nevada, Mississippi, Oregon and Washington State).
Including Alaska is somewhat unfair, however, since it generates much of its electricity with oil unlike every other state except Hawaii.
(Source)
Hawaii is also notable for having the lowest electricity consumption per capita (despite having a significant average number of non-resident tourists not included in the denominator of that calculation), which mitigates the dirty character of its electrical grid.
Hum, On the bottom graph, two of these things are not like the others. The outliers being North Dakota and New York. California and Hawaii are blessed with the best climates of any of the states, with less heating and cooling days required. New York get most of it's heating from fuel oil furnaces, as it electrifies it will trend toward the average. Because of NYs favorable coastal position it won't require as much energy as the mid continent states. North Dakota electrification percentage was not readily available, but it gets ~35% of it's energy from wind and that is climbing. Because of the distribution of wind energy ND will eventually become a wind exporter. On the other hand ND does suffer from ice storms that would almost certainly shut down all wind and solar for a week at a time. To the extent that those polar blasts affect the other states on the regional grids ND will need to retain significant thermal generation.
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ReplyDeleteThe coastal position of NYC isn't the only thing keeps residential electricity use down in New York State. It's the efficiency associated with having so many people live in very high population density New York City housing. Shared walls, ceilings, and floors are great insulating factors in the summer. Housing and office spaces with less average square footage per capita due to its high cost helps. And, there are also little things like fewer street lights and traffic lights per capita, and short transmission lines with high voltages that don't waste much energy.
North Dakota is the opposite. It has a very low population density, sprawling ranch houses with no shared walls, hot summers, cold winters, and lots of electricity wasted in long transmission lines with lower voltages since local demand is lower.
Hum... Reminds me of when I went up to Binghamton New York with the eye towards moving there. I visited a friend and noticed a snapshot on the refrigerator. It was a view out the patio door towards a table - with a beer tower covered in four inches of snow. I asked "Was that last winter?" "No, it was the 1st of June." was the mind boggling answer.
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