(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. transition to clean energy is picking up speed.
Renewable power will be the fastest-growing source of electricity over the next three decades, accounting for 38% of generation by 2050, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration's Annual Energy Outlook released Wednesday.
That's up from a forecast of 31% in last year's report, and it comes as costs for solar and wind continue declining.
“This shift has been strongly influenced by federal and state policies that help make renewables the fastest-growing source of electricity,” EIA Administrator Linda Capuano said at an event in Washington.
Coal, meanwhile, will provide 13% of U.S. power in 2050, down from 24% today, as power plants close. Natural gas, currently the largest source of electricity with 37%, will be surpassed by renewables by 2045, according to the EIA.
(Michael Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, has committed $500 million to launch Beyond Carbon, a campaign aimed at closing the remaining coal-powered plants in the U.S. by 2030 and slowing the construction of new gas plants.)
--With assistance from Stephen Cunningham.
To contact the reporters on this story: Christopher Martin in New York at cmartin11@bloomberg.net;Will Wade in New York at wwade4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Ryan at jryan173@bloomberg.net, Christine Buurma
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