Here I list the numbers for each state. These come from the United States Energy Information Administration (known as the EIA). Their website is www.eia.gov These numbers are from 2016 - they can be found on the "Electric Power Monthly" report for Feb 2017. The states are listed alphabetically. A few states use a small percentage of other fuels, but this is pretty much only pertinent in Hawaii which is 67% Petroleum - Hawaii is obviously its own unique scenario. The Renewables column includes Biomass, Geothermal, Solar and Wind. In 2016 the EIA estimates that residential solar panels generated 10,465 thousand Megawatt hours, which works out to 0.25% of US total electricity. This was up from 6,999 in 2015 and 4,947 in 2014, so although very small, residential solar has doubled in just 2 years.
State Coal / NatGas / Nuclear / Hydro / Renewables
- United States 30 34 20 7 8
- Alabama 24 40 28 5 2
- Alaska 10 43 0 29 4
- Arizona 28 31 30 7 4
- Arkansas 39 30 22 6 2
- California 0 49 9 15 26
- Colorado 55 23 0 4 19
- Connecticut 0.5 45 49 0 2
- Delaware 5 89 0 0 2
- Florida 17 66 12 0 2
- Georgia 28 40 26 2 4
- Hawaii 16 0 0 1 14
- Idaho 0 21 0 60 20
- Illinois 32 9 53 0 6
- Indiana 71 20 0 0 6
- Iowa 47 6 9 2 37
State Coal / NatGas / Nuclear / Hydro / Renewables
- Kansas 48 4 17 0 30
- Kentucky 83 10 0 4 1
- Louisiana 11 62 16 1 3
- Maine 0 32 0 25 38
- Maryland 37 15 40 4 4
- Massachusetts 6 66 17 2 7
- Michigan 36 26 28 1 6
- Minnesota 39 15 23 1 21
- Mississippi 8 80 9 0 2
- Missouri 77 8 12 2 2
- Montana 51 0 0 36 8
- Nebraska 58 2 25 5 10
- Nevada 0.5 73 0 4 17
- New Hamp 2 25 56 6 11
- New Jersey 2 56 39 0 3
- New Mexico 56 30 0 0 13
State Coal / NatGas / Nuclear / Hydro / Renewables
- New York 1 42 31 20 5
- North Carolina 29 30 33 3 5
- North Dakota 71 2 0 5 22
- Ohio 58 24 14 0 2
- Oklahoma 25 47 0 3 26
- Oregon 0 26 0 57 14
- Pennsylvania 25 32 39 1 3
- Rhode Island 0 96 0 0 4
- South Carolina 22 17 58 2 2
- South Dakota 20 10 0 40 30
- Tennesse 39 14 37 9 1
- Texas 27 50 9 0 13
- Utah 69 23 0 2 6
- Vermont 0 0 0 56 44
- Virginia 18 44 32 2 4
- Washington 0.5 10 9 68 9
State Coal / NatGas / Nuclear / Hydro / Renewables
- West Virginia 94 2 0 2 2
- Wisconsin 51 24 16 4 5
- Wyoming 86 0 0 2 9
As you can see the mix of generation sources varies wildly by state. You have a few states which don't use any coal at all, most notably California, which gets 49% of it's generation from Natural Gas. Then there is Maine which relies on Natural Gas and Hydro, whereas neighbor New Hampshire uses mostly Nuclear. The northwest gets a majority of its electricity from Hydro, as does South Dakota. Coal is king in the Appalachian states of West Virginia and Kentucky but also in many states downstream the Ohio and Mississippi rivers such as Indiana, Missouri and Ohio. But Mississippi itself is mostly Natural Gas. Coal is also king in many areas of the west including Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and North Dakota. Many states in the Southeast are more of a mix such as Georgia and the Carolinas. Finally we have to mention Texas which not surprisingly leans toward Natural Gas. These numbers will have a pretty substantial effect when it comes down to how much Solar electricity your state's grid can handle.
Finally I should note that electricity crosses state borders - it's not like all the electricity produced in Ohio stays in Ohio - some flows over to Indiana and vice versa. The grid in the United States and Canada is grouped into 3 super-huge groups known as "interconnections." The big three are the Eastern, Western, and Texas Interconnections (Texas has its own separate grid). Also Quebec is on its own (how curious... Texas and Quebec are electrical "separatists"). But then the Eastern Interconnection is subdivided further... I mean it's a mess. Anyway if you want to check it out the map you can search online for NERC Interconnection map or check out my personal favorite at: http://www.ercot.com/content/wcm/landing_pages/89373/nercInterconnectionsMap.jpg
Therefore one should keep in mind that you might want to consider a neighboring state if you live near a state border. For my case here in Cincinnati, including Indiana just makes the case for solar even worse (Indiana gets a whopping 87% of its electricity from coal). On the other hand consider the city of Youngstown Ohio, which is near the Pennsylvania border. Since Pennsylvania gets less of its electricity from coal (36%) than Ohio (67%) then the situation in Youngstown is perhaps a little more favorable. All in all the grid is so complicated it probably takes a supercomputer to model the whole situation accurately, but using the state numbers should at least get us in the ballpark.
In the next post I will examine the difference between an all coal versus an all natural gas grid in terms of integrating solar electricity.