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    The Largest Source of Power in Every U.S. State and Canadian Province in 2025 [OC]
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    The Largest Source of Power in Every U.S. State and Canadian Province in 2025 [OC]

    Power sources are historically tied to local resources. With so much variation in climate and geology across the US and Canada, there are several key energy regions.

    • Coal Country spans much of the US northeast, historically powering the country with its abundant coal reserves. While coal’s decline has reshaped the region, natural gas from the Marcellus shale is shifting its landscape.
    • A wind belt cuts across the central US and into Canada. Texas has been called the “Saudi Arabia of Wind,” while states like Iowa and Kansas regularly generate more than half their electricity from wind farms.
    • A solar belt stretches across the southwestern US, where states like California, Arizona, and Nevada have built some of the world’s largest solar farms. With the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts receiving some of the highest solar irradiance on Earth, large-scale solar installations have been used to harvest the energy. 
    • Hydro potential dominates much of the north, with large reservoirs and generating stations supplying many parts of Canada and some US states. Though, droughts have affected the reservoirs over the past year, with Quebec moving from next exporter to net importer over the course of the year.

    The news of the year:

    California became the first state to generate more electricity from solar power than any other source. Solar eclipsed natural gas as the state’s adoption of batteries allowed for more solar to be absorbed into the system.

    Posted by Orennia

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    30 Comments

    4. ConsiderationJaded14 on

      very interesting – thank you for sharing. hopefully this changes quickly, to more sustainable forms of energy.

    5. dab45de on

      Idk how coal is leading in North Dakota, I lived there for nearly a decade. There are wind farms EVERYWHERE.

    6. User5281 on

      How on earth is solar not dominant in places like Nevada and Arizona? What an absolute failure

      Edit: this question is rhetorical, numbskulls. stop with the pedantry. I’m aware the sun only shines during the day and that there are cost and infrastructure issues. Our inability to manage those cost and infrastructure issues is the failure I was referring to.

    7. Traditional-Meat-549 on

      Problem in California is that they are trying to mandate that natural gas can’t be used. Our power companies are privately owned and we pay the highest power costs in the country. It’s awful.

    9. Pharmd109 on

      “Solar” but when the grid failed California buys natural gas energy from as far as Colorado. Half of our electric bill is transmission costs. 25-30% of our energy is imported

    11. Santaconartist on

      I know this isn’t the forum, but it’s still very much up for debate if natural gas “significantly reduces,” or even reduces at all, emissions compared to coal. Methane only has to leak 3-5% during storage/transmission to break even, and the gas companies themselves, who have an incentive to underreport, are in charge of disclosing these measurements. [https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2024/10/liquefied-natural-gas-carbon-footprint-worse-coal?utm_source=chatgpt.com](https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2024/10/liquefied-natural-gas-carbon-footprint-worse-coal?utm_source=chatgpt.com) and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2oL4SFwkkw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2oL4SFwkkw)

    13. bigheadjim on

      Isn’t it crazy that solar isn’t #1 in states like Florida, Texas and Arizona? Where they have probably 20 overcast days a year.

    14. em3am on

      That’s because California is the Sunshine State. Oh wait, no it’s not, its the Golden State. Is there a problem here?

    15. Select_Scar8073 on

      In Québec, the Canadian government did not want to give us a loan for Hydro Québec. We had to request one from the US.

    17. wooddt on

      The fact that hydro isn’t #1 in NY is insane to me. There are some towns who got ahead of the power company trying to block things here and their electric bills are almost nothing compared to peer towns because they installed a dam to generate electricity. The entire Erie canal could be fitted with them (in fact I think some are and used to power the dams/locks before they were forced to use the power grid.

      It’s a crime that the utility companies basically force us to remain in hydrocarbon hell.

    18. FissionFire111 on

      The dirty secret behind Californias solar is how they managed to build massive solar farms in Nevada by making the NV residents pay for it through their power company because the same company owns both the NV and CA power company. Huge solar fields paid by NV with the sole purpose to supply electricity to CA. It’s bullshit

    19. carvannm on

      I had family living in NW Wyoming and every time we visited I was struck by how they are living on top of a literal volcano and yet use no geothermal power. It’s prohibited inside Yellowstone to preserve the natural features, and I gather any tapping could destroy the entire geyser system. Wyoming is also very windy, yet they are still burning coal.

    20. lmaberley on

      Coal?!?! It’s 2026 and Nova Scotia is still uses coal?!?

      I think if there was any real political will, it would tidal..

      Do better FFS…

    21. slpgh on

      If we truly cared about the environment and global warming, the entire country would be on Nuclear. But the so called green lobby has such an anti nuclear bias that we’re still primarily on fossil fuels

    22. palmmoot on

      It’s interesting that they use diesel far north, considering it needs help starting in the cold.

    25. TrainsareFascinating on

      This map is useless, to the point of being misinformation.

      Its unfortunate choice of metric would lump a state that consumes 80% of its power from coal with a state that has 20% of its power from coal. It hides the diversity of generation behind a “single largest takes all” mapping.

    27. TeteDeMerde on

      > Coal Country spans much of the US northeast

      Huh? Northeast and Mid-Atlantic are almost all natural gas.

    28. Beautiful_Finger4566 on

      100% of this should’ve been nuclear if not for the luddites that refuse to understand technology

    29. Rialagma on

      I’m convinced we will see the complete electrification of China before the US gets its house in order. How embarrassing for the wealthiest nation on earth.

    30. BisonMysterious8902 on

      I’m surprised Georgia is still largely natural gas. The [Vogtle nuclear plants](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogtle_Electric_Generating_Plant) were the first nuclear plants to go online in the US since 3 Mile Island disaster, and is currently the largest nuclear plant in the US @ 4.5GW capacity as of 2024. I tried to look up how that compared to other sources, but couldn’t find good data for 2025.