Today in Energy

The average energy capacity cost of utility-scale battery storage in the United States has rapidly decreased from $2,152 per kilowatthour (kWh) in 2015 to $625/kWh in 2018. Battery storage systems store electricity produced by generators or pulled directly from the electric power grid and redistribute the power later as needed. At the end of 2018, the United States had 869 megawatts (MW) of installed battery power capacity (the maximum amount of power a battery can provide at a given moment) and 1,236 megawatthours (MWh) of battery energy capacity (the total amount of energy that can be stored by a battery).

U.S. exports of natural gas to Mexico, almost all of which travel by pipeline, have continued to increase in 2020. These increases have more than offset declines in Mexico's imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and relatively smaller declines in Mexico's domestic natural gas production.

The U.S. propane market is highly seasonal: about two-thirds of the propane consumed last year was consumed in the winter months (October through March). In the United States, most propane is consumed in homes during the winter; about 5% of U.S. homes use propane as their main heating fuel. In its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects 5% more U.S. propane consumption this winter compared with last winter, largely because a cooler winter forecast means more demand for residential space heating.

U.S. distillate fuel oil inventories remained high through summer 2020 because production outpaced demand. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects that increased demand for distillate fuel oil in the agriculture and residential sectors in the coming winter will help to draw down high U.S. distillate inventories. These initially relatively high inventories, along with lower crude oil prices, will continue putting downward pressure on distillate fuel oil prices through the 2020–21 winter season.

In 2019, consumption of renewable energy in the United States grew for the fourth year in a row, reaching a record 11.5 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu), or 11% of total U.S. energy consumption. The U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) new U.S. renewable energy consumption by source and sector chart published in the Monthly Energy Review shows how much renewable energy by source is consumed in each sector.