U.S. power use is expected to decrease in 2023 due to mild temperatures and weaker economic activity , the Energy Information Administration said in a report on Tuesday.
Consumer power demand is expected to drop to 3,999 billion kilowatt-hours in 2023, a 2% decline compared to the all-time high of 4,045 billion kWh seen in 2022, the EIA said in its Short-Term Energy Outlook.
Power sales for residential consumers are expected to drop to 1,475 billion kWh this year, down from the record-high of 1,516 billion kWh in 2022, the EIA said.
THOUSANDS OF TEXANS TOLD THEY WON'T GET POWER BACK UNTIL THE END OF THE WEEKDemand is expected to rebound the following year, however, rising 2% in 2024 to reach a projected total of 4,063 billion kWh.
Much of that growth is slated come from the renewables sector, representing a shift in the makeup of the U.S. power generation mix.
In the report, EIA forecasts that renewable sources will increase from 22% of the total U.S. energy generation in 2022 to 24% in 2023 and up to 26% in 2024.
Most of that will be driven by utility-scale solar generation: Roughly 32 gigawatts of solar capacity is slated to come online this year, the EIA said, and by the end of 2024, that amount will increase to 63 GW.
Meanwhile, wind capacity is expected to rise by 5% in 2023, with 13 GW of new wind capacity expected to enter service in the next two years.
The shift toward renewable energy will help reduce output from U.S. natural gas and coal-fired power plants, which the EIA predicts will drop from 59% of U.S. generation in 2022 to 54% in 2024.
Coal will see the biggest drop from 2022, decreasing to 17% in 2024 compared to 20% in 2022.
Nuclear power will also increase slightly this year, increasing to 20% of U.S. energy generation in 2023 compared to 19% in 2022.
The trends are consistent with a global shift to renewable energy.
In a December 2022 report, the International Energy Agency said the global energy crisis caused by Russia's war in Ukraine has accelerated an international shift to renewable energy.
“Renewables were already expanding quickly, but the global energy crisis has kicked them into an extraordinary new phase of even faster growth as countries seek to capitalise on their energy security benefits," Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a statement.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINERThe IEA predicted in that report that the world is on track to add as much renewable power in the next five years as it did in the last 20.