A few decades ago, the concept of renewable energy is virtually unheard of and coal remains to be the top source of generating electricity. In the past few years, renewable energy is increasingly becoming a viable, sustainable choice. New data from the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has shown that voluntary purchases of renewable power has increased nearly 300% since 2010.

Specifically, the green power market in the U.S. grew to 134 million megawatt-hours sold to 6.3 million customers, according to the NREL data. Majority of the power sources came from wind- and solar- generated electricity, which were purchased “above and beyond state-level mandates,” according to news site Axios. This amounts to nearly 3% of all electricity sales in the U.S.

The NREL chart below visualizes the trend from 2010 to 2018. 

Chart from NREL

Axios also notes that the trend reflects the increasing availability and affordability of renewable energy sources, particularly wind and solar, which have grown to nearly 9% of all electricity today from relative zero a decade ago. 

Significantly, while major U.S. companies such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Facebook are some of the biggest buyers of green power, the report found out that 75% of the market are individuals that purchase electricity in smaller amounts. This suggests that more and more people are consciously taking steps to make the best choice economically and environmentally for our future.