U.S. electricity generation from nuclear power plants fell behind output from renewable energy sources last year, the government’s independent energy auditor said this week.
Renewable energy sources, which include wind, hydropower, solar, biomass, and geothermal power, generated around 800 million megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity in 2021, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a report published Tuesday. That figure was slightly higher than last year’s nuclear sector output of around 780 MWh, the report said.
Renewable energy generation has seen an uptick as more wind and solar power sites come online, EIA said.
Despite a growing trend of shuttering nuclear power plants, electricity generation in the sector has remained relatively steady over the last few years, the report said. EIA has previously said that generation capacity lost by closing nuclear plants has been stabilized in part by increased generation rates and shorter refueling outages at operating sites.
The nuclear sector saw a slight capacity increase in 2021 even with the closure of New York’s Indian Point Energy Center last April, EIA said, but even with that growth U.S. nuclear generation was at its lowest point since 2012.
Meanwhile, U.S. nuclear plants are still shutting down. Michigan’s Palisades Nuclear Generating Station is next on the chopping block, in May — but it won’t go down without a fight from the Great Lake State.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) told the Department of Energy last week that Michigan would bid on the first round of the feds’ roughly $6 billion civil nuclear credits program, which DOE formally unveiled April 19. The agency has said plant operators interested in getting a bailout have until May 19 to submit a bid, and that the first round of credits should go out in October.
