Renewable energy doesn’t just mean sun, wind, water and geothermal sources, the EIA reminds us. It also includes biofuels, like ethanol and biodisel, and biomass, like wood and wood wastes.
This shift in energy consumption doesn’t mean that renewables are now our main source of electricity, however. Outside of electricity generation, the generated energy is also used for transportation, heating and industrial steam production.
Below, you can see that renewable energy is still slightly below that of nuclear for now. But assuming these trends continue, renewables should pass nuclear here, too, sometime in the next few years.