Solar & Wind Each Produced More Electricity Than Coal In USA In April

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Solar and wind power plants continue to grow rapidly in the United States, and coal continues to decline — despite the current federal government so heavily putting its thumb on the side of coal. Solar and wind continue to get deployed rapidly due to their pure free-market competitiveness, while the death of the coal industry is basically just being delayed by crony capitalism.

The SUN DAY Campaign has analyzed the latest data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) and has a lot to share. Note that this includes discussion of power capacity (the max power rating of power plants) and electricity generation (how much electricity was actually generated). It also includes a discussion of new installations as well as capacity and generation from the total installed fleet of power plants.

I could write a normal article about all of this, but given the stat-packed nature of this report, I prefer to share three bullet lists of the various stats and go from there.

Electricity Generation

  • Electricity generation from renewables accounted for 30% of US electricity generation in the first third of 2026.
  • Wind and solar, including small-scale solar, provided 21.8% of US electricity in the first third of 2026.
  • Electricity generation from renewables grew by 10% in the first third of 2026 year over year. “The growth was led by utility-scale (i.e., >1 megawatt (MW)) solar (up 21.3%), hydropower (up 15.7%), small-scale solar (i.e., <1-MW) (up 11.9%), and wind (up 3.4%).¹”
  • Electricity from coal power plants declined by 11.6% in the first third of 2026. Electricity from natural gas grew by 2.8% and from nuclear grew by 0.5%.
  • “In April alone, wind and solar each produced more electricity than the nation’s coal plants while the combination of solar and wind produced 57.0% more electricity than did nuclear power.²”

Power Capacity

  • Utility-scale solar, wind, and battery storage projected to add another 78.5 gigawatts (GW) of capacity by April 30, 2027.
  • At the same time, fossil fuel and nuclear capacity projected to decline by more than 5.2 GW.
  • “Between May 1, 2025 and April 30, 2026, the installed capacity of utility-scale solar increased by 27,572.3-MW while that of small-scale solar and wind grew by 6,492.2-MW and 5,976.4-MW respectively. The combined capacity of all renewable energy sources — including hydropower, biomass, and geothermal — expanded by 39,884.2-MW.”
  • “In April, for the first time, EIA reported that utility-scale solar capacity surpassed that of wind (160,208.1-MW vs. 160,100.6-MW).”
  • “In addition, utility-scale battery energy storage capacity increased by 17,703.5-MW or 58.1%.³”
  • “By comparison, coal capacity fell by 3,511.4-MW and nuclear added just 18.4-MW. However, natural gas capacity rose by 7,754.2-MW.”

Projected Capacity Growth

  • “As of May 1, 2026, renewable energy’s share of total U.S. utility-scale (i.e., >1-megawatt (MW)) generating capacity was 33.8%. EIA projects this to grow to 36.8% by April 30, 2027. Utility-scale solar will add 42,527.2-MW thereby expanding its share from 13.1% to 15.9% while wind will grow by 13,154.4-MW (including 3,355.0-MW of offshore wind), increasing from 13.1% to 13.6%. The mix of other renewables (i.e., hydropower, biomass, and geothermal) will add 298.7-MW.”
  • “The combined capacity growth of all utility-scale renewable energy sources for the 12-month period (55,980.3-MW) is two-thirds more (i.e., 67.6%) than that added during the previous 12 months (33,392.0-MW).”
  • Fossil fuels, meanwhile, are projected to see a 5,200.5-MW decline, and nuclear power is projected to stay level.
  • “EIA foresees battery energy storage adding another 22,828.9-MW by May 1, 2027, bringing the total up to 71,007.4-MW – an increase of over 47%.”
  • The above stats for projected capacity don’t include small-scale solar. Assuming small-scale solar additions come to the same total in the coming 12 months as the past 12 months, the SUN DAY Campaign forecasts that renewable energy capacity will surpass natural gas electricity generation capacity. “If small-scale solar does increase by approximately 6,000-MW by May 1, 2027, it will bring renewable energy’s installed capacity up to about 537,606.9-MW. By comparison, natural gas’ generating capacity would total 515,744.9-MW.” Additionally, solar power alone will surpass one-fifth of US generation capacity (reaching 20.1%).

Overall, those are some strongly positive stats for solar power, battery storage, and renewables as a whole in the United States, despite having the most anti-cleantech administration in the history of the country. Coal continues to decline because it’s out of date, inefficient, and expensive. Solar is now leading the way forward thanks to its hyper-competitiveness and broad abundance. Battery storage is also helping to integrate a lot more renewable energy as it scales up at a rapid rate on the back of extreme cost drops over the past decade and a half.

I look forward to the next SUN DAY Campaign update, but we already know that it is going to be bright and positive. That’s the way the industry is trending.

¹ “In January-April 2026, wind produced 185,496 gigawatt-hours (GWh) — 12.8% of total U.S. electrical generation — while utility-scale and small-scale solar combined produced 130,639-GWh (9.0%), hydropower produced 99,787-GWh (6.9%), biomass produced 14,521-GWh (1.0%), and geothermal produced 5,238-GWh (0.36%).”

² “In January-April 2026, the mix of wind and solar, including small-scale solar, produced 316,135-GWh while nuclear power generated 255,104-GWh and coal provided 212,270-GWh. In April 2026, wind generated 49,136-GWh. Utility-scale and small-scale solar generated 40,912-GWh. Solar and wind combined generated 90,048-GWh. Coal generated 39,777-GWh. Nuclear power generated 57,373-GWh.”

³ “EIA presents its capacity data as ‘summer capacity’ defined as the maximum output that generating equipment can supply to system load at the time of summer peak demand. See Table 6.1 in the ‘Electric Power Monthly’ report.”

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Zachary Shahan

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its editor-in-chief and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about electric vehicles and renewable energy at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao.

Zachary Shahan has 9213 posts and counting. See all posts by Zachary Shahan