The photo is sourced from co2everything.com
Fossil fuel consumption fell by 1.7% to 77.2 quadrillion British thermal units (quad), while renewable energy consumption rose by 1.6% to 13.2 quad. The varied dynamics are largely due to a sharp reduction in coal demand: the volume of primary consumption of solid fuel in 2023 decreased by 17% to 8.2 quad, including as a result of the winding down of coal-fired power generation infrastructure. According to Global Energy Monitor, the United States accounted for 46% of the global capacity of coal-fired power plants shut down in 2023 (9.7 GW out of 21.1 GW), while the share of coal in the country’s energy mix fell from 19% to 16%.
A key alternative to coal in the power industry is gas, the share of which in the U.S. energy mix rose from 39% in 2022 to 42% in 2023. This is partly why primary gas consumption in the U.S. increased by 1% last year, to 33.6 quad, and its share in the structure of energy demand went up from 33.4% to 34.1%.
Oil consumption in the U.S. increased by 0.3% (to 35.4 quad) in 2023, with the share of oil in primary energy demand rising from 35.4% to 35.9%. The increase in oil use has not been affected by the rise of electric cars. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), sales of new passenger electric cars and plug-in hybrids in 2023 increased by 40% (1.39 million units), with their share in the sales of new passenger cars rising from 7.4% to 9.5%.
The recovery in air travel has played an offsetting role in this. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the passenger traffic volume of U.S. domestic aviation was lower by 5.9% in 2022 than in 2019, but it managed to exceed said figure by 9.6% in 2023. At the same time, passenger turnover of international flights in North America exceeded the pre-crisis level by 13.5% last year.
The fastest-growing source among renewables was solar energy, whose consumption in 2023 rose by 16%, to 2.2 quad. This was aided by the accelerated pace of installation of solar panels in the U.S.: from 19.0 gigawatts (GW) in 2022 to 24.8 GW in 2023, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Wind power consumption fell by 2% to 3.7 quad as a result of prolonged periods of low-wind conditions, which caused a decline in U.S. wind power generation last year for the first time since the mid-1990s. Finally, nuclear power consumption rose by 0.5% to 8.1 quad, thanks to the launch of the third power unit at the Vogtle NPP in Georgia, only the third nuclear reactor to come online in the U.S. since 2000.
Overall, the results for 2023 are in line with the trends of recent years: an increase in the use of solar energy against the backdrop of a sharp reduction in coal consumption and a slight increase in demand for oil and natural gas. These trends are likely to continue into the late 2020s, due to both the low penetration of electric vehicles in ground freight transport and the shutdown of coal-fired power plants, making natural gas a key balancing source of electricity.
