US Electricity by Source, 1949-2026: Coal vs Gas vs Nuclear vs Solar

Where does America's electricity actually come from, and how has that changed? We race every major source of US power generation, from coal, hydro and oil to nuclear, natural gas, wind and solar, using 77 years of government data, with flashbacks to how the country got wired, from Edison's Pearl Street Station in 1882 to Hoover Dam. Part of the playlist "America's #1, Then and Now": Every company that was America's #1, 1800-2026:    • Every Company That Was America's #1 (1800-...   Which president added the most to the national debt?:    • Which President Added the Most to the Nati...   Data as of June 2026 (EIA Monthly Energy Review, released Sep 29, 2026). Chapters 0:00 1949: Coal and dams 0:39 Flashback: Edison to Hoover Dam 1:34 1957: The atomic age begins 2:41 1973: The oil shocks 3:13 1979: Three Mile Island 3:48 1984: Nuclear's build-out 4:11 1989: Into the 1990s 5:08 2000s: The gas boom 5:43 2009: Recession and shale 6:07 2015: Neck and neck 6:44 2019: Wind and solar surge 7:45 2025: Up to today 8:03 Your call Which source do you think will lead US electricity in 2040? Tell us in the comments. How it's counted Each bar is US net electricity generation from one source over the previous 12 months, in billion kilowatt-hours (= terawatt-hours, TWh), all sectors. Rolling 12-month totals remove seasonal swings (summer air-conditioning, spring snowmelt), so a lead change on screen means a full year of higher output, not one month. Each December value equals that calendar year's total. EIA publishes yearly totals for 1949-1972 and monthly figures from January 1973. Values between yearly points before 1973 are interpolated, so the chart moves smoothly but shows no month-to-month detail in those years. Solar = utility-scale solar plus EIA's estimate of small-scale (rooftop) solar from Table 10.6, which EIA starts in 1989. Small-scale solar is an estimate, not a meter reading. Hydro = conventional hydroelectric (pumped storage is excluded because it uses more power than it returns). Biomass = wood and waste. Not shown: other fossil gases, pumped storage and EIA's small 'other' category (together well under 1% of generation). Percentages on screen are shares of the nine sources shown. Through 1988 EIA counted electric utilities only; from 1989 it also counts independent power producers and commercial and industrial plants. That is why biomass, and to a lesser degree other sources, step up in 1989. EIA revises recent months; figures for 2025-2026 may change slightly in later releases. Sources US Energy Information Administration, Monthly Energy Review (September 2026), Table 7.2a Electricity Net Generation: Total (All Sectors), and Table 10.6 Solar Electricity Net Generation: eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly History and context: Edison's Pearl Street Station (1882); Adams Power Plant, Niagara Falls (1895-96); Rural Electrification Administration (Executive Order 7037, 1935; NRECA and Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond on farm electrification rates); US Bureau of Reclamation (Hoover Dam, Grand Coulee); US Department of Energy and NRC (Shippingport 1957, Three Mile Island 1979, Watts Bar 1996 and 2016); Georgia Power (Vogtle Units 3 and 4, 2023-24); Powerplant and Industrial Fuel Use Act (1978). Photos (Wikimedia Commons): Pearl Street Station engraving and Edison 'Jumbo' dynamo (public domain); Westinghouse generators at the Adams Power Plant (public domain); Lester Beall, Rural Electrification Administration poster, Library of Congress (public domain); Hoover Dam generator installation, Bureau of Reclamation (CC BY-SA 2.0); Grand Coulee Dam, US Bureau of Reclamation (public domain). Icons are simple drawings made for this video. Thumbnail photos: Navajo Generating Station by Matthew Dillon (CC BY 2.0); Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station by Cuhlik (public domain); Power County Wind Farm, US Department of Energy (public domain). Narration: AI-generated voice (Kokoro-82M, voice af_heart), from a script written and fact-checked for this video. Music and sound are original, made for this channel. No company or agency sponsored or reviewed this video. #electricity #energy #solar #nuclear #EIA #dataisbeautiful #barchartrace