Wednesday, 2 October 2024.
Last week, in New York, United States, the North America Climate Summit 2024 took place, a well-attended event on the topic. And so full of side events that it is known as “New York Climate Week”. Furthermore, it takes place parallel to the United Nations General Assembly.
The United States also appeared in a recent article “Solar energy is already among us. How to maximize its potential from daylight saving time?”. But for a curious reason.
Among the leading countries in photovoltaic solar energy - China, European Union, India, Brazil, United States - it was the only one for which the International Energy Agency (IEA) did not highlight the growth, the amount of GW achieved. For the United States, only financial and fiscal stimuli created were mentioned.
That's why we decided to analyze today how renewable sources are evolving in that country.
The IEA itself has a chapter on the United States where it indicates that 4.8% of the energy mix generated in there in 2023 was solar, making up a total of 10.9% coming from renewable sources. Natural gas is at the top with 41.9%, followed by nuclear 18.2%, coal 16.8%, wind 9.7% and hydroelectric 5.9%
As we know, sources such as natural gas and coal are under pressure due to decarbonization, hydraulics and nuclear (due to the need for cooling) depend on water, wind from the wind and solar from the Sun.
In today's world, perhaps depending on the Sun is the least critical situation for energy generation purposes. It is no surprise that the world's great powers are racing to develop nuclear fusion, a practically infinite energy source, exactly as occurs on the Sun.
And what do North Americans think of all this?
Last June, the Pew Research Center disclosed a survey of United States voters, focusing on renewable sources.
65% indicated that the country should continue to expand solar, wind and hydrogen production, and only 35% thought the same about oil, coal and natural gas. But North Americans' support for renewable sources has been waning, as has interest in electric vehicles.
For these and many other interesting trends, click the image below to read the full Pew Research Center article.
Finally, it is worth highlighting the importance that the United States has increasingly given to another “carbon-free” energy source, nuclear energy, both the growing dedicated use by private sector companies such as Microsoft, and in the production of clean hydrogen.
