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Texas, which already leads the nation in electrical energy technology from pure gasoline, coal and wind, has handed California to turn out to be the chief in utility-scale photo voltaic.
Information for 2025, launched final week by the U.S. Power Data Administration, reveals that Texas generated 58,634 gigawatt-hours from utility-scale photo voltaic, sufficient to drag forward of California’s 53,713 gigawatt-hours.
However California can proceed to assert the excellence of main the nation in electrical energy from small-scale photo voltaic, which EIA defines as any mission with capability of lower than 1 megawatt. And if we take a look at the sum of utility-scale and small-scale photo voltaic, California stays forward.
I’m highlighting utility-scale photo voltaic as a result of it was the fastest-growing electrical energy supply in america final 12 months, with a rise of 35 p.c. Nevertheless it’s nonetheless simply one-sixth of the gigawatt-hours of the chief, pure gasoline.
Whereas gasoline remained on prime, it was down 3.3 p.c, largely attributable to excessive costs that led it to lose market share to different sources.
If we view renewable vitality—together with wind, hydropower, utility-scale photo voltaic and others—as a single class, it was second solely to gasoline, and up 9.5 p.c.
Among the many different main sources, nuclear was primarily flat, growing 0.4 p.c.
Coal gained floor, including 13 p.c, benefiting from favorable value competitors with gasoline and excessive electrical energy demand.
Listed here are the most recent figures and the way they match into what’s occurred since 2010:
One other manner to take a look at that is to visualise slices of a pie. Pure gasoline had the biggest slice with 40.8 p.c. Subsequent was renewables at 24.1 p.c, adopted by nuclear at 17.7 p.c and coal at 16.6 p.c. This left about 1 p.c below the “different” class, which included less-used fossil fuels comparable to petroleum liquids.
EIA lists this knowledge as preliminary and topic to revision, however in my expertise, any revision is prone to be small.
Right here is a few element on the modifications in renewables:
I spoke with 4 folks this week to assist perceive the 2025 figures.
Kevin Kircher, a mechanical engineering professor at Purdue College, stated the expansion of utility-scale photo voltaic is “an incredible success story.”
“I’ve been engaged on clear vitality for about 15 years, and after I began, photo voltaic was nonetheless a boutique kind of factor that you’d placed on satellites and that some nerds had on their roofs, but it surely wasn’t actually a factor that was prepared for scale,” he stated. “Now photo voltaic has hit the mainstream.”
He stated Texas’ embrace of photo voltaic reveals the optimistic facet of a state regulatory local weather that makes it simple to construct. The draw back, he stated, is that it’s additionally simple to construct dirtier issues, comparable to fossil-fuel infrastructure.
It’s not a shock that Texas has taken the lead in utility-scale photo voltaic technology, contemplating the tempo of progress over the previous couple of years. Texas handed California in put in utility-scale photo voltaic capability in 2024, after which 2025 was the primary full 12 months during which Texas’ photo voltaic initiatives generated extra electrical energy than these in California.
I requested Catie Hausman, an affiliate professor within the Faculty of Public Coverage on the College of Michigan, for an instance of an particularly essential quantity within the new knowledge. Slightly than specializing in anybody energy supply, she regarded on the large image of electrical energy technology from all utility-scale sources, which was up 2.8 p.c in 2025 in comparison with the prior 12 months. She defined why that’s a major enhance.
“Complete technology is up for 2 years in a row,” she stated. “One 12 months might need been a blip, however now we’re seeing two years in a row after a long time of flat demand progress, and that’s solely per what we find out about knowledge facilities and likewise electrification and different broad market traits.”
Information facilities, with their outsized thirst for electrical energy and water, are forcing officers to consider carefully about tips on how to handle infrastructure spending and restrict the share of prices that fall on residential customers.
Bryan Hubbell, an economist and senior fellow on the suppose tank Sources for the Future, took an in depth take a look at the rise in electrical energy from coal-fired energy vegetation. He stated the shift was attributable to a number of components, together with excessive climate that drove excessive demand throughout nearly all energy sources, actions by the Trump administration to forestall outdated coal vegetation from closing and excessive gasoline costs.
Hubbell labored for 27 years on the U.S. Environmental Safety Company, ending final summer time when he was head of the air, local weather and vitality analysis program. He took early retirement when the Trump administration introduced it deliberate to eradicate his workplace.
I requested him if he thinks coal vegetation will proceed to extend their output in 2026.
“I’m not satisfied we’ve hit peak coal but,” he stated.
Excessive electrical energy demand, plus assist from the Trump administration, might assist gradual or pause the decline that had been taking place earlier than President Donald Trump returned to workplace, he stated.
“It will depend on the administration’s [level of] willpower to maintain coal on life assist,” he stated.
However these efforts run counter to a different declared precedence of Trump: lowering vitality costs. I’ll be searching for indicators that the administration has reached some extent the place it views coal subsidies as too costly to justify.
Most states elevated their use of coal for electrical energy final 12 months, however a number of had been chargeable for a disproportionately massive share of the rise.
Indiana stands out, having elevated its electrical energy from coal by 21.7 p.c, sufficient to leapfrog West Virginia and Kentucky and turn out to be No. 2 in coal energy, proper behind Texas.
The shift in Indiana was largely due to a couple massive coal vegetation growing their output considerably, stated Ben Inskeep, program director for Residents Motion Coalition, an Indianapolis-based shopper advocacy and environmental group.
The vegetation had run much less in prior years due to decrease demand, excessive working prices and upkeep points, he stated. However situations modified in 2025, with demand rising a lot that operators had been much less daunted by the prices.
“It’s regarding to see Indiana’s utilities enhance electrical energy technology through the use of outdated, costly coal-fired energy vegetation as an alternative of investing in clear and reasonably priced technology assets,” Inskeep stated in an e-mail. “Hoosiers are paying the worth to maintain these dilapidated and unreliable energy vegetation on-line, each by hovering electrical payments and severe well being and environmental impacts attributable to their air pollution.”
Whereas Indiana elevated its use of coal energy, it’s also seeing funding in utility-scale photo voltaic. The biggest mission is Mammoth Photo voltaic in north-central Indiana, which the developer, Doral Renewables, has stated may have capability of 1,300 megawatts when full. An preliminary part of 400 megawatts went on-line in 2024.
Just some years in the past, 400 megawatts of utility-scale photo voltaic was so massive that it was troublesome to think about. Now, if you happen to take a look at visualizations such because the Photo voltaic Power Industries Affiliation interactive map, initiatives of that dimension have turn out to be nearly commonplace.
That is what vitality researchers comparable to Kircher are speaking about once they react to growth that has blown previous expectations and continues to speed up.
Different tales concerning the vitality transition to pay attention to this week:
How the Iran Struggle Might Have an effect on World Renewables: The Iran battle stays in its early days, however there are some indications that the battle and associated volatility in fossil gas costs might create political and financial causes to spend money on renewable vitality, as Christa Marshall and Corbin Hiar report for E&E Information. The extent of the increase for renewable vitality could rely upon the extent of harm and disruption to Center East oil and gasoline infrastructure.
Why Electrical energy Payments Are So Excessive—and How the Blowback May Hit Trump: U.S. residential electrical energy charges rose by a median of 5 p.c final 12 months and plenty of customers really feel like the expansion is uncontrolled. The explanations for the rise are difficult and differ considerably by state, as Marianne Lavelle and I report for ICN.
Non-public Fairness Makes a Main Acquisition of a U.S. Energy Producer: A consortium together with BlackRock’s World Infrastructure Companions and the Swedish private-equity agency EQT AB has reached an settlement to purchase AES Corp., a Virginia-based firm that may be a main developer of fresh vitality initiatives and owns native utilities in Ohio and Indiana. At $33.4 billion, together with debt, this is without doubt one of the largest acquisitions within the energy sector, as Sumit Saha experiences for Reuters. This continues non-public fairness’s transfer into the ability sector amid rising demand from knowledge facilities and different massive customers. Final 12 months, Minnesota regulators authorized the sale of Allete, a utility, to World Infrastructure Companions.
EV Gross sales in China Are Manner Down So Far This 12 months: A number of main Chinese language automakers, together with BYD, reported February gross sales that present a significant decline inside China, the world’s largest vehicle market, as Al Root experiences for Barron’s. That is most likely unhealthy information for Tesla, which obtained 22 p.c of its income from China final 12 months. It’s not shocking to see some velocity bumps in China following a number of years of progress.
Inside Clear Power is ICN’s weekly bulletin of stories and evaluation concerning the vitality transition. Ship information ideas and inquiries to dan.gearino@insideclimatenews.org.
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