The Energy Information Administration recently published the year-end US electricity data for 2025.
A few observations…
Overall US electricity generation increased 3% over 2024. This follows a similar 3% increase in 2024. Demand for electricity in the US is definitely increasing, but right now seems to be manageable.
Electricity generation from coal increased 13% in 2025. This was offset by a 3% decline in natural gas.
Generation from non-hydro renewables increased 12% over the previous year. Most of the increase was solar and wind.
However, because overall demand for electricity was up, total fossil fuels were up 26.5 TWh in 2025. This means CO2 emissions increased in the electricity sector, even though there was an increase in renewable power generation. The increase in coal use also contributed to increased CO2 emissions.
Below is a summary of the total US electricity mix, from largest to smallest.
Natural Gas 1807.3 TWh (40% of total)
Nuclear 784.8 TWh (17.4%)
Coal 737.2 (16.3%)
Wind 464.4 (10.3%)
Solar 388.8 (8.6%)
Hydro 247.0 (5.5%)
Other Renew. 61.9 (1.4%)
Other 31.3 (0.7%)
Notes:
In the list above , Solar is the combined large scale and small scale (rooftop) generation.
Other Renew. includes things like biomass, landfill gas, and geothermal.
The Other category includes petroleum liquids, petroleum coke, other miscellaneous fuels, and accounting for the energy consumed for pumped hydro storage
Lastly, the US average residential price of electricity in 2025 was 17.30 cents per kilowatt-hour. This an increase of 5% over 2024, when it was 16.48 cents/kwh. Average prices for all of the states can be found here, if you are interested. California has the highest priced electricity in the contiguous 48 states, at 32.54 cents/kwh.
Clean electricity was 43 % and dirty fossil electricity was 57%. So sad that coal increased so much. At least California doe not have coal fired power plants.
Without Weighing Costs to Public Health, EPA Rolls Back Air Pollution Standards for Coal Plants
The federal Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for coal and oil-fired power plants were strengthened during the Biden administration.
Last week, when the Environmental Protection Agency finalized its repeal of tightened 2024 air pollution standards for power plants, the agency claimed the rollback would save $670 million.
Environmental and legal experts said that claim is just the latest example of the agency’s flawed accounting process under the Trump administration, which no longer considers the public health benefits of air pollution regulations. Instead, EPA now only considers the costs to companies.
“If you only look at one side of the ledger, it’s always going to come out one way,” said John Walke, senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council and a former EPA attorney.
EPA did not consider the health costs which erase any benefit from lower everyday living costs. Saving $670 million per year amounts to $2 per person, but I think that sayings will only go to the utilities.
Under the Biden administration, the E.P.A. tightened the amount of PM2.5 that could be emitted by industrial facilities. It estimated that the rule would prevent up to 4,500 premature deaths and 290,000 lost workdays in 2032 alone. For every $1 spent on reducing PM2.5, the agency said, there could be as much as $77 in health benefits.
But the Trump administration contends that these estimates are doubtful and said the E.P.A. would no longer take health effects into account in the cost-benefit analyses necessary for clean-air regulations, according to the documents. Instead, the agency would estimate only the costs to businesses of complying with the rules.
One of the concerns for the US power grid is the extra demand that computer data centers will require in the future. Some of those data centers are planning to supply their own power, rather than taking it directly from the grid. One of these projects is underway in Texas, and recently received approval to go forward from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
The US has paved the way for the world’s largest 11-gigawatt private power grid after authorities in Texas recently approved a six-gigawatt (GW) Clean Air Permit, the nation’s second-largest to date.
Energy developer Fermi America secured the authorization for its Project Matador campus, located near Amarillo, Texas, on February 25. The 18-million-square-foot facility will be operational by late 2020s to mid-2030s.
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The project is planned to eventually consist of 4 large nuclear reactors of the type recently built in Georgia, plus natural gas combined cycle power plants, plus renewables with battery storage.
Last year, the project submitted paperwork for a combined construction and operating license application (COLA) for the nuclear portion of Project Matador.
