CLIMATEWIRE | Throughout 2024, wind and solar power generation surpassed coal for the first time over an entire year, signaling a significant shift in energy production sources.

However, despite this achievement, carbon emissions from electricity generation rose. This increase was due to a surge in natural gas usage, which reached unprecedented generation levels last year. The expansion in gas usage not only compensated for the slight reductions in carbon emissions from coal but also positioned natural gas as the primary contributor to climate pollution within the power sector, marking another first.

These contrasting developments underscore the evolving dynamics within the American electricity sector. Renewable energy sources are playing an increasingly crucial role in the national power grid, comprising nearly 16 percent of total power generation in the past year. Nonetheless, the growth rate of natural gas is exceeding that of renewables, largely driven by the business sector’s recognition of its importance in supporting the escalating demand for electricity, particularly from data centers.

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This trend emerges as President Donald Trump eliminates pollution regulations and vows to diminish subsidies for renewable energy. These changes pose questions about the future potential for reductions in emissions from power plants, historically the fastest sector to decrease climate pollution in the U.S. economy.

“It’s quite a pivotal moment to reflect on the recent developments and consider their future implications,” noted Robbie Orvis, an energy modeler at the clean energy think tank Energy Innovation. “The current administration is emphasizing the need to boost energy supply, including electricity, with a particular focus on supporting the AI infrastructure expansion in the nation with data centers, at a time when the primary sources of new power are solar and wind.”

The overtaking of coal by renewables has been anticipated for some time. Over the past decade, numerous coal plants have been retired while installations of renewable energy systems have surged, leading to a role reversal in the nation’s energy hierarchy. In 2022, the combined output from wind, solar, and other renewable sources like hydropower and geothermal surpassed that of coal.

In 2024, wind and solar alone outpaced coal. Recent data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration revealed that wind and utility-scale solar produced a total of 669 terawatt-hours of electricity last year, surpassing coal’s production of 652 TWh. Including solar thermal and small-scale solar, total renewable generation reached 756 TWh.

This milestone is significant. A decade ago, coal was responsible for nearly 40 percent of U.S. power generation, whereas wind and solar contributed less than 5 percent. By 2024, wind and solar edged ahead, accounting for 15.5 percent of utility power generation compared to 15.2 percent for coal.

Last year also witnessed a record-breaking surge in solar installations, with 30 GW of new solar capacity added, shattering the previous record of 19 GW set in 2023. Wind power saw an additional 5 GW installed, its lowest since 2014. Nevertheless, these installations were sufficient to push renewable power generation past coal, which experienced a reduction of 4.5 GW in capacity, marking the lowest level of coal retirements since 2011.

From a climate perspective, the challenge is that gas generation has increased at an even faster rate than renewables over the past decade. According to EIA data, gas generation rose by 66 percent, or 738 TWh, from 2014 to 2024, while wind and solar increased by 240 percent but added less in absolute terms: 471 TWh.

Previously, the combination of more gas, more renewables, and less coal led to a decrease in emissions from the power sector. Last year, sector emissions were at 1.54 billion tons, 29 percent lower than in 2014, per EPA data.

However, this trend is changing. Last year, power generation increased by 3 percent due to a particularly hot summer and growing demands from data centers, meaning the addition of more low-emission power sources merely met rising demand rather than replacing higher-emission sources. As a result, the 1.54 billion tons of CO2 emitted by U.S. power plants in 2024 was roughly the same as in 2023, when emissions totaled 1.52 billion tons.

Industry forecasts predict a rapid increase in power demand in the upcoming years, driven largely by data centers but also by an increasing number of electric vehicles and manufacturing operations.

“If our response is simply to add more natural gas, our emissions won’t decrease—they might just stagnate as they did last year,” stated Costa Samaras, a professor specializing in the energy industry at Carnegie Mellon University and former climate advisor in the Biden administration. “Eventually, we’ll run out of coal to replace.”

This story is also featured in Energywire.

Reprinted from E&E News with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2025. E&E News provides essential news for energy and environment professionals.