Today’s headlines: Solar beat coal in May, GM turns to sodium-ion batteries, and more headlines

This roundup of U.S. energy news headlines is part of our Canary Media Daily newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox each morning.

CLEAN ENERGY

• Solar power supplied 12.8% of the U.S.’s power throughout May, exceeding coal generation’s share of the energy mix for the first time across a whole month. (Associated Press)

• Experts say a court ruling knocking down IRS guidance limiting the use of wind and solar tax credits will have scant benefits for renewables developers, with those incentives slated to expire in just a few weeks. (E&E News)

BATTERIES

• General Motors announces an investment in sodium-ion battery startup Peak Energy, becoming the latest automaker to move into battery storage as the U.S. EV market stalls. (Axios)

• EDP Renewables brings a 200-MW battery energy storage system online for Arizona utility Salt River Project. (news release)

INDUSTRY

• U.S. Steel pledges up to $2.5 billion in upgrades to its facilities outside Pittsburgh, including implementation of new technology to reduce emissions. (Pittsburgh’s Public Source)

DATA CENTERS

• Texas’ grid operator reports that more than 480 proposed data centers have requested to connect to the grid by 2032, representing more than 418 GW, which is nearly five times the system’s all-time power demand record. (Houston Chronicle)

• Mississippi residents file a class-action lawsuit against Elon Musk’s xAI and a subsidiary over ​“near-constant noise, vibrations, and other nuisance-level harms” from the mobile gas turbines the companies use to power data centers in Memphis, Tennessee. (Mississippi Today)

• Seattle City Council votes to enact a one-year citywide moratorium on data center development. (Seattle Times)

• Democratic governors are walking a ​“political tightrope” as they decide whether to embrace the economic promise of data centers or oppose the facilities’ potential impact on water quality and energy prices. (E&E News)

GRID

• Annual U.S. power consumption set a record in 2025 for the second year in a row and is on pace to rise even further in 2026 and 2027, according to new federal data. (Reuters, Energy Information Administration)

• A federal judge blocks the U.S. Forest Service from using President Donald Trump’s energy emergency order to fast-track the environmental and cultural review of a proposed 226-mile transmission line through the Nebraska Sandhills. (Courthouse News Service)

NUCLEAR

• The DOE releases a road map aimed at speeding commercialization of fusion power, though that reality is still a long way off. (news release)

COAL

• Sources say the Trump administration spiked a multiagency criminal investigation into whether coal companies owned by Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Justice of West Virginia violated the Clean Water Act. (ProPublica)