US Clean Electricity Generation, Mapped

Nukes, hydro, solar, oh my; Texas leads all states in clean power production

The US generated 4,100TWh of electricity in 2021, equivalent to just under 470GW of average power production. Of that, a then-record 38% came from zero-emission resources. This post explores where that clean generation comes from.

The map below shows average annual power production by plant across the US in 2021, drawing from the Energy Information Administration’s Form 923.

Nuclear reactors, most built in the 1970s-80s, abut major demand centers. Hydro, much constructed even decades earlier, traces the nation’s waterways, saturating the rivers of the Pacific northwest, the Tennessee Valley Authority in the southeast, and flowing from massive dams on the Niagara and St. Lawrence in the northeast.

Solar follows irradiance south, popping up across California, Texas, and parts of the sunbelt, though the impact of SREC programs can be seen in smaller PV generation scattered further north. Wind farms flood the blustery Great Plains states, stretching from the Dakotas all the way down to the southern tip of Texas.

The chart below shows clean power production by state, drawing from the same EIA data. Texas produces more clean electricity (and more electricity of any kind) than any other state. Illinois, with its cluster of nuclear reactors; California, with a duck ton of grid-scale and rooftop solar; and Washington, with its abundant hydro resources round out the top states pumping out the most clean power.