United States
USAThe United States is second in the world for how much electricity it makes.
4,520 TWh a year.
What this grid depends on
Three measures that say more about a country than how much power it makes. Open “what this means” on any of them if the term is new.
Cleaner than 6 in 10 grids worldwide.
What this means
How much planet-warming gas is released to make one unit of electricity. Two countries can generate exactly the same amount and one of them be ten times dirtier doing it. Lower is better.
United States generates almost exactly what it uses, with next to nothing crossing its borders.
What this means
Electricity can be sold across a border like anything else, through high-voltage lines connecting one country's grid to the next. Buying it in means leaning on a neighbour to keep the lights on. Selling it means generating more than the country needs.
Most of what this grid runs on is produced at home.
What this means
How much of what this grid runs on the country can supply itself. Sun, wind and water count fully, because nobody can cut them off; coal, gas and oil only as far as the country digs them up. A high score is not the same as a good grid: mining your own coal scores well, importing uranium scores badly.
Also true of United States
The United States is among the world's biggest wind and solar producers and still burns fossil fuels for most of its power.
19% of its electricity is wind and solar; 57% is still fossil. Both are true at once, and that tension is the whole story of the transition.
Nuclear overtook coal on the United States' grid in 2023.
Today nuclear supplies 17% and coal 16%.
The United States runs one of the most fossil-dependent grids in NATO.
43% of its electricity is low-carbon, 31th of 32.
United States’s neighbours
CanadaCanada uses far more electricity per person than countries at its income level.
MexicoMexico is second in Latin America and the Caribbean for how much electricity it makes.
GreenlandGreenland has cleaned up its grid faster than most people realise.
BelizeBelize is second in the world for bioenergy.
BahamasThe Bahamas runs almost entirely on oil.
Figures are for 2025, the most recent year reported for United States. Generation shares are a percentage of electricity generated, not of energy used. How this is calculated.