The Decline of Coal Power in the US
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Data Notes
Synopsis
Coal power has been on the decline in the US for the past decade as it has been displaced by natural gas and renewables. Note that solar appears on the chart in 2014 as that is the earliest year for which data is available from the U.S Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Weaknesses of the Visualization
This visualization has several weaknesses.
- The fact that energy generation has remained more-or-less constant is obscured. We left off total generation to make the changes in individual sources more visible.
- There are additional energy sources that could be added to the chart. Adding too many makes it hard to read, however.
Data Sources
The data comes from the EIA. They actually have a number of useful visualization tools to further slice and dice the data.
Acknowledgments
This visualization was created using R and D3. The following packages were particularly helpful: