Solar overtakes coal in US electricity generation for the first time

In May, solar power supplied 12.8% of US electricity, edging past coal’s 12.2% — the first month solar has ever beaten coal nationally, per data from energy thinktank Ember. Coal’s share was its fourth-lowest on record after hitting an all-time monthly low in April, while solar climbed to become the country’s third-largest power source behind natural gas and nuclear. Analysts expect more such months ahead, with solar projected to surpass coal on an annual basis within a few years.

The milestone lands amid open federal hostility to renewables. The Trump administration has pledged nearly $700m to prop up coal plants and exports, canceled solar and wind projects, slowed clean-energy permitting, and pulled $7bn in funding for affordable solar programs. Yet market momentum points the other way: solar has led new capacity additions for five years, and solar plus battery storage accounted for 91% of all new generating capacity in Q1, according to SEIA and Wood Mackenzie. Industry voices argue investors will follow returns regardless of rhetoric, and right now those returns favor solar.

The shift matters because US electricity demand is rising again after two flat decades, driven by AI data centers, reindustrialization, and electrification of transport and heating. How that new demand gets met — carbon-free sources versus fossil fuels — will shape both emissions trajectories and grid economics, and May’s numbers suggest solar’s growth has enough commercial inertia to outlast unfavorable federal policy.