For The First Time In US History Solar Just Beat Coal On The Electricity Grid

Solar power generated more electricity in the United States than coal for the first time in recorded history during May, with data from global energy think tank Ember showing that solar supplied 12.8 percent of total US electricity for the month, edging past coal at 12.2 percent, a crossover that energy analysts are calling a genuine landmark in America's evolving power mix. Solar output hit a record 45.5 terawatt-hours in May, a 17 percent increase from the same month the previous year, while coal generation came in at 43.4 terawatt-hours, still 11 percent below May 2025 levels even after a slight recovery from April, when coal hit its all-time monthly low. To understand how quickly the landscape has shifted, it helps to look at the same month five years earlier: in May 2021, coal provided 19.7 percent of US electricity while solar contributed only 5.4 percent. The two lines have been moving in opposite directions ever since, and last month they crossed.

The May milestone is the latest in a series of clean energy firsts that have arrived in quick succession this year, following March's achievement when renewables as a group generated more electricity than natural gas in the US for the first time on record. Solar plus battery storage dominated 91 percent of all new US electricity capacity added in the first quarter of the year, and Ember's senior data analyst Nicolas Fulghum said solar has now become the third-largest and fastest-growing source of power in the US electricity system, a description that would have seemed implausible a decade ago when it was still a niche contributor. The shift continues despite political headwinds: the Trump administration has directed hundreds of millions of dollars toward coal industry support and has moved to scale back clean energy incentives, but energy economists say the market forces behind solar's growth, driven by falling costs and surging demand, are now largely independent of federal policy in their momentum. Ember says another solar generation record could fall again this summer when peak output usually arrives in June or July.

Source:https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/11/solar-energy-us-coal