High Fossil Fuel Use in US Highlight Challenges of

High Fossil Fuel Use in US Highlight Challenges of Energy Transition

Although the United States has made significant strides in its efforts to adopt renewable energy during the last decade, fossil fuels still play a major role in the nation’s energy mix. Over two centuries of using coal, oil and natural gas have made it extremely difficult for the U.S. to shake its reliance on fossil fuels, and the country still relies on dirty fuels to fulfill the majority of its energy needs.

The past 10 years have seen more American power generators increasingly favor clean-energy sources over fossil fuels, causing their capacity to generate renewables to surge by 70% and fossil-fuel capacity to fall by 5% since 2014. An over 99% fall in photovoltaic-solar-panel manufacturing costs has also made solar energy much cheaper and allowed the U.S. to deploy significant solar-energy infrastructure throughout the country’s massive landmass.

Unfortunately, this still isn’t enough to threaten fossil fuels’ hold over the nation’s energy mix. Fossil fuels accounted for a little more than 58% of the country’s total energy generation from January to August 2024, down from 60.4% over the same period in 2021. Increased green-energy output may have reduced the share of fossil fuels between 2021 and 2024, but fossil-fuel generation also reached record highs in 2024 as increased energy demand forced utilities to up their energy production.

The rise in energy demand is partly due to artificial intelligence applications and data centers, which consume mind boggling amounts of power. As energy systems felt increasing levels of pressure from these and many other consumers, they turned to fossil fuels to make up for the energy shortfalls. Fossil fuels can be used to generate energy at any time while renewables, especially solar, are intermittent in nature and have to be accompanied by a reliable energy-storage system.

This means utilities are much more likely to turn to fossil fuels when spikes in demand force them to increase their energy-generation capacity as swiftly as possible. The U.S. would have to boost its capacity for generating renewables such as solar and build a massive network of batteries for storage before its utilities can cut their fossil-fuel use by a notable margin.

In the meantime, fossil fuels still rule the country’s energy mix and added up to 68.6 million megawatt hours (MWh) in the first eight months of the year. Natural-gas power plants accounted for 49.3 million MWh, while coal-fired plants supplied 19.1 million MWh.

This challenge faced by the U.S. in seeing the share of clean energy increasing in its energy mix presents a business opportunity for enterprises such as Energy and Water Development Corp. (OTCQB: EAWD), which seek to tap the rewards of solving the problems standing in the way of the energy transition.

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Energy and Water Development Corp. (OTCQB: EAWD) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/EAWD

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