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Power to the People – Progress Report

Every so often, we like to peer into the particular details of U.S. power generation and statistics, here are the current numbers:

What is U.S. electricity generation by energy source?

In 2022, about 4,243 billion kilowatthours (kWh) (or about 4.24 trillion kWh) of electricity were generated at utility-scale electricity generation facilities in the United States.¹ About 60% of this electricity generation was from fossil fuels—coal, natural gas, petroleum, and other gases. About 18% was from nuclear energy, and about 22% was from renewable energy sources.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that an additional 58 billion kWh of electricity generation was from small-scale solar photovoltaic systems in 2022.²

U.S. utility-scale electricity generation by source, amount, and share of total in 2022¹
Data as of February 2023

Energy source	Billion kWh	Share of total
Total – all sources	4,243
Fossil fuels (total)	2,554	60.2%
Natural gas	1,689	39.8%
Coal	828	19.5%
Petroleum (total)	23	0.6%
Petroleum liquids	16	0.4%
Petroleum coke	7	0.2%
Other gases³	12	0.3%
Nuclear	772	18.2%
Renewables (total)	913	21.5%
Wind	435	10.2%
Hydropower	262	6.2%
Solar (total)	146	3.4%
Photovoltaic	143	3.4%
Solar thermal	3	0.1%
Biomass (total)	53	1.3%
Wood	37	0.9%
Landfill gas	9	0.2%
Municipal solid waste (biogenic)	6	0.1%
Other biomass waste	2	0.1%
Geothermal	17	0.4%
Pumped storage hydropower⁴	-6	-0.1%
Other sources⁵	11	0.3%

Source: eia.gov

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Tesla Teases Less-Expensive, Next-Gen EV Motor and Platform

The next-generation permanent magnet drive unit will be cheaper to manufacture and use no rare earth metals.

Source: CNET – Tesla Teases Less-Expensive, Next-Gen EV Motor and Platform

Copper Rivet Day 2022

Happy Copper Rivet Day 2022! As time marches on, one hundred forty-nine years ago, on May 20, 1873, the copper rivet was patented. Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis collaborated to bring about the manufacture and implementation of what is an indispensable and iconic feature found on every pair of denim jeans. The copper rivet has been a fascinating part of everyday life and is barely noticed and often under-appreciated. Actually, without the humble little rivet, we may not even have the denim jean as we know them today. As a side note, what we refer to commonly as a ‘jean rivet’ is called a ‘pocket burr’ in the garment industry.

Mr. Strauss designed and manufactured denim work pants and found that the pants would rip and tear at critical points of stress during use. He needed a solution to strengthen them, and this he found in the little rivet invention of Jacob Davis. Like so many other things in life that go so well together, the copper rivet will be forever united with the clothes and things we love to wear and use. Check out our ‘Key to the Highway’ denim key ring here.

Read more about Levi Strauss, Jacob Davis, and the ubiquitous copper rivet and the History of Jeans and Denim here.

Modern Monuments No.2

Presented here is our Modern Monument No. 2.

This is not an indictment of the current state of statues and monuments. We are only considering what the world may look like with more iconic sculptural imagery. Interpret the image as you will. This, our peace dove divided into 7 pieces gracing a position of importance and prominence.

Power to the People – uPdate

We are happy to report updated information from the 2020 U.S. Energy Production Statistics.

It seems as though things are looking up.

Below are the statisticts from our previous report from 2016:

According to eia.gov here is a breakdown of U.S. Energy production.*

Coal = 33%
Natural gas = 33%
Nuclear = 20%
Hydropower = 6%
Other renewables = 7%
Biomass = 1.6%
Geothermal = 0.4%
Solar = 0.6%
Wind = 4.7%
Petroleum = 1%
Other gases = <1%

*Above statistics for year 2016

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration

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