Solar Panels Produced 1.9% as Much Energy as Fossil Fuels in 2021

Solar panels produced only 1.9 percent as much energy in the United States in 2021 as did fossil fuels, according to data published by U.S. Department of Energy.

When the energy produced by windmills is added to the energy produced by solar panels, those two sources combined produced 6.2 percent as much energy as fossil fuels in 2021.

In fact, all renewable energy sources combined—including hydroelectric power, geothermal power, solar power, wind power and biomass power—produced only 15.9 percent as much power last year as fossil fuels.

Table 1.2 in the May edition of the Department of Energy’s Monthly Energy Review lists how much energy has been produced historically in the United States by the source of its production.

In 2021, according to this table, the United States produced a total of 97.778 quadrillion Btu (British thermal units) in energy. That was up from the 95.672 quadrillion Btu in 2020, but down from the record 101.437 quadrillion Btu that the United States had produced in 2019.

The single largest source of energy production in the United States in 2021 was dry natural gas, which produced a record 35.409 quadrillion Btu.