Solar beat coal on the US grid in May — a new milestone

This article is part of our ​“Chart of the Week” series.

The U.S. just hit a big milestone: It got more power from solar panels than from coal plants in May.

It’s the first time that has ever happened across an entire month, and all the more notable given the Trump administration’s all-out push to revive the moribund U.S. coal industry.

Solar produced 12.8% of the nation’s electricity in May, a sun-soaked month that’s often among the best-performing for the clean energy source, per new data from think tank Ember. Coal power made up just 12.2%, a near all-time low, while natural gas dominated the mix at 37%.

For years, the power sector was the single biggest source of planet-warming pollution in the U.S., which is itself responsible for more historical greenhouse gas emissions than any other nation. America’s heavy reliance on coal, an especially dirty fossil fuel, drove those dubious distinctions.

In the late 2000s, facing hotter competition from increasingly abundant natural gas and a burgeoning renewable energy sector, coal-fired electricity output peaked in the U.S. It’s been all downhill from there for coal, which slipped from providing nearly half the country’s electricity needs two decades ago to just 17% last year. Emissions from the power sector have fallen accordingly, and now it’s the second-largest source in the U.S., after transportation.

President Donald Trump, who has insisted that the words ​“beautiful, clean” precede ​“coal” in all instances, is trying his best to stem the sector’s terminal decline. His administration has issued a slew of controversial emergency orders requiring aging coal plants to stay online — even those that are broken or otherwise unable to run. Earlier this month, it announced it would plow $700 million into the industry, both to patch up old plants and to build two new ones.

Coal actually did produce a bit more electricity last year than in 2024, but mostly because a combination of high power demand and elevated natural gas prices made the fuel momentarily more attractive.

Still, that doesn’t reverse the long-term trend. Every year, gigawatts of new clean energy come online in the U.S., because it’s cheap and comparatively easy to build. For several years running, over 90% of new electricity capacity built in the U.S. has been in the form of solar, wind, or batteries.

Meanwhile, the last new coal plant in the U.S. was completed back in 2013.

Take those two facts together, and it’s clear that solar is going to outperform coal many more times in the near future, and by wider and wider margins each time.