Good news for our climate: Renewable energy is on the rise

The signs of climate change are all around us. Recent years have shown us the intensifying consequences of our reliance on fossil fuels: Volatile storms, record-breaking temperatures, intense wildfires, and more. 

But signs of progress are all around us, too. There are a lot of good things happening that are helping to change the way we power our lives and put the planet on a sustainable path.

In fact, the clean energy future is already well on the way if you know where to look. Today, America produces more than three times as much power from renewable sources as we did in 2014 – and clean energy is growing globally.

There are a lot of reasons to transition to clean energy – but one big benefit is that it reduces pollution that destabilizes our climate. Confronting the climate crisis is going to take a massive effort, and renewable power is an important part of the solution.

Here are three pieces of good climate and energy news you might not have heard before: 

Renewable sources produce enough energy to power millions of homes

When we burn fossil fuels for power, we release tons of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. These heat-trapping gasses form a blanket over the earth that destabilizes our climate. 

But we don’t need to depend on fossil fuels to power our homes. We can harness the energy of the wind and sun—and the good news is that we’re doing a lot more of that.

Wind and solar produced enough energy to power more than 60 million homes in 2023. That’s equivalent to more than 40% of the homes in the entire United States! We’re rapidly approaching the point where enough renewable energy could be produced to power more than half of our homes.

Enough wind power was produced to fuel 39 million homes. The amount of power we harness from wind has more than doubled in the last decade.

Enough solar power was produced to fuel 22 million homes. That’s more than eight times as much compared to 2014!

Both the raw amount of renewable energy available, and the speed of its growth, are increasing. Renewable energy has grown over the last 10 years in every single U.S. state.

We have more battery storage capability than ever before

Battery storage is a key component of a sustainable renewable energy system because many renewable energy sources are “intermittent,” meaning they don’t generate power all the time. Batteries allow you to store energy generated by the sun during the day or from the wind while it’s blowing, and then use that energy at night or when the wind is still. 

Delivering the energy we need in emergencies or on a still day or night doesn’t have to mean firing up more greenhouse gas polluting power sources. It can just require flipping a switch.

America has almost 100 times the battery storage capability than it did in 2014. This incredible growth is part of the key to unlocking our ability to use renewable energy to power our everyday needs. 

Batteries are also vital sources of power during times when the main power grid is stressed or unavailable, like during extreme weather events. EV owners can already use their cars – essentially batteries on wheels – to keep devices charged during power outages. It may someday be possible to use an electric car to power your home during an outage, too.

Home batteries built for the purpose of storing renewable energy are already a reality, too. 

America had 15.5 gigawatts of battery energy storage at the end of 2023, 97 times as much as in 2014 and 72 percent more than at the end of 2022. There’s room to grow, but this explosion of storage capability is a very promising start!

In 2023, coal generated 184 gigawatts of power – so our battery storage capability equaled about 8% of that amount. But our reliance on coal power is falling. As battery storage increases and carbon-generated power decreases, we could someday see a future where we replace dirty coal plants with renewable energy and storage completely.

Millions of electric vehicles have hit the road in the last 10 years

At the end of 2023, at least 3.3 million electric vehicles were on American roads. That represents a 25-fold increase from 2014 and explosive growth over the course of just a decade.

The transportation sector is the single largest source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Plus, more than half of the emissions from transportation are from light-duty vehicles – like our personal cars. That means switching to more EVs is one of the most important ways we can reduce our contribution to the climate crisis. 

One of the reasons switching to an electric vehicle might seem tricky is because you need places to charge it – but keeping your EV fueled up is also easier than ever nowadays. As of the end of last year, there were more than 176,000 electric vehicle charging stations nationwide, with more being built all the time.

A clean energy future is good news for our climate

Together we can take steps to address climate change and put us on a sustainable path. From calling for the closure of dirty energy plants, to supporting solar and wind projects, to increasing the number of EVs on the roads – we’re hard at work to make the clean energy future a reality with the help of supporters like you.

Learn more about opportunities to help make a difference on global warming and other exciting campaigns by signing up today!