Focus on Renewable Energy Spurs Concerns Over Supply–Demand Equation

The nation’s utilities generated 5 percent more electricity during the first six months of 2024 than the first half of 2023 because of a hotter-than-normal start to summer and increasing power demands from the commercial sector, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported in its July Short-Term Energy Outlook. Some fear intermittent renewable energy from the sun, the wind, water pressure, or geothermal steam cannot reliably keep pace with rapidly growing energy demands without redundant fossil fuel generation unless, or until, battery storage and transmission technologies advance. [epoch_component type=”related_posts” position=”column-right” section_title=”” width=”” items=””][/epoch_component] Renewable energy sources—solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, hydro—constitute nearly 95 percent of that added capacity and now generate more than 21 percent of the nation’s electricity, eclipsing coal as a source last year, the EIA said....