Texas already leads the nation in electricity generation from natural gas, coal and wind, and has surpassed California for the top spot in utility-scale solar power generation.
Texas generated 58,634 gigawatt hours of utility-scale solar power, enough to surpass California’s 53,713 gigawatt-hours, according to 2025 data released last week by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
However, California can continue to assert its leading edge in small-scale solar power, which the EIA defines as projects with a capacity of less than 1 megawatt. And when you look at total business size and small-scale solar generation, California still leads the way.
I focus on utility-scale solar power because it was the fastest growing source of electricity in the U.S. last year, up 35%. But that’s still only one-sixth of the gigawatt hours of the leader, natural gas.
Gasoline remained in first place, but fell 3.3%, mainly due to higher prices and market share loss to other sources.
As a single category, renewable energy, which includes wind, hydro, utility-scale solar, and more, came in second place behind gas, increasing by 9.5%.
Among other major sources, nuclear power was almost flat, increasing by 0.4%.
Coal rose 13%, benefiting from favorable price competition with gas and high electricity demand.
Here are the latest numbers and how they match up with what’s happened since 2010.
Another way to see this is to visualize a pie slice. Natural gas accounted for the largest share at 40.8%. Next was renewable energy at 24.1%, followed by nuclear at 17.7% and coal at 16.6%. This left about 1% in the “other” category, which includes less frequently used fossil fuels such as liquid petroleum.
The EIA lists this data as preliminary and is subject to revision, but in my experience the revisions are likely to be minor.
Here’s more about the changes in renewable energy.
To understand the numbers for 2025, I spoke to four people this week.
Purdue University mechanical engineering professor Kevin Kercher said the growth of utility-scale solar power is an “amazing success story.”
“I’ve been working in clean energy for about 15 years. When I started, solar power was still kind of a boutique thing that you put on satellites or some geeks put on their roofs, but it wasn’t really something you could scale,” he said. “Solar power generation is now mainstream.”
He said Texas’ aggressive embrace of solar power shows the positive aspects of the state’s regulatory environment that makes it easier to build solar power. The downside, he said, is that it’s easy to build dirtier things, such as fossil fuel infrastructure.
Given the pace of growth in recent years, it’s no surprise that Texas is leading the way in utility-scale solar power. Texas overtook California in installed utility-scale solar capacity in 2024, followed by 2025, the first full year in which Texas solar projects generated more electricity than California.
I asked Katie Hausman, an associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Policy, for an example of a particularly important number in the new data. Rather than focusing on a specific power source, she looked at the overall picture of power generation from all utility-sized power sources, which grew by 2.8% year-over-year in 2025. She explained why this was a significant increase.
“Total electricity generation has increased for the second year in a row,” she said. “One year may have been a blip, but after decades of flat demand growth, we’ve now seen two consecutive years of demand growth. This is completely consistent with what we know about data centers, as well as electrification and other broader market trends.”
The hunger for electricity and water in data centers is so great that regulators are having to think carefully about how to manage infrastructure spending and limit the share of costs that fall on residential consumers.
Brian Hubbell, an economist and senior fellow at the think tank Resources for the Future, took a closer look at the rise in electricity from coal-fired power plants. He said the change was due to several factors, including extreme weather that increased demand on nearly all power sources, Trump administration actions to prevent the closure of older coal-fired power plants, and rising gas prices.
Mr. Havel worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for 27 years, finishing his job last summer as director of the Atmosphere, Climate and Energy Research Program. He took early retirement when the Trump administration announced plans to eliminate his position.
I asked him whether he thought coal-fired power plants would continue to increase production in 2026.
“I’m not convinced we’ve reached peak coal yet,” he said.
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He said high demand for electricity, along with support from the Trump administration, could slow or stop the decline in demand that occurred before President Donald Trump returned to office.
“It depends on the administration’s (level of) determination to keep coal on life support,” he said.
But these efforts run counter to another declared priority of President Trump: lowering energy prices. I’ll be looking for signs that the administration has reached a point where it believes coal subsidies are too expensive to justify.
Most states increased their use of coal for electricity last year, but a small number of states accounted for a disproportionately large share of the increase.
Indiana stands out by increasing its coal-fired electricity generation by 21.7%, leapfrogging West Virginia and Kentucky to become second in coal-fired power generation behind Texas.
Indiana’s changes are largely due to several large coal-fired power plants significantly increasing production, said Ben Inskeep, program director for Citizens Action Coalition, an Indianapolis-based consumer advocacy and environmental group.
He said the plant had been operating less frequently in previous years due to lower demand, higher operating costs and maintenance issues. But in 2025, the situation has changed and demand has increased so much that carriers are less daunted by costs.
“It’s concerning that Indiana’s electric utilities are using older, more expensive coal-fired power plants to generate more power instead of investing in clean, affordable power generation resources,” Inkeep said in an email. “Hoosiers are paying the price for keeping these aging and unreliable power plants running in higher electricity costs and serious health and environmental impacts from pollution.”
While Indiana increases its use of coal-fired power generation, it also sees investment in utility-scale solar power. The largest project is Mammoth Solar in north-central Indiana, which developer Doral Renewables says will have a capacity of 1,300 megawatts when completed. The initial stage of 400 megawatts came online in 2024.
Just a few years ago, 400 megawatts of utility-scale solar power was so large that it was difficult to imagine. Projects of that size are now almost commonplace, as visualizations such as the Solar Energy Industry Association’s interactive map show.
This is what energy researchers like Kircher are saying in response to developments that continue to accelerate beyond expectations.
Other articles on the energy transition to watch this week:
Impact of Iran war on global renewable energy: Although the Iran war is still in its early stages, there are some signs that the conflict and associated fossil fuel price fluctuations could create a political and economic case for investing in renewable energy, as Christa Marshall and Corbin Hear report for E&E News. The extent of renewable energy promotion may depend on the level of damage and disruption to oil and gas infrastructure in the Middle East.
Why are electricity bills so high and how the backlash will affect President Trump: U.S. home electricity prices rose an average of 5% last year, and many consumers feel the growth is out of control. As Marianne Lovell and I report in ICN, the reasons for the increase are complex and vary widely by state.
Private equity makes major acquisition of U.S. power company: A consortium that includes BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners and Swedish private equity firm EQT AB has reached an agreement to acquire AES Corp., a Virginia-based company that is a leading developer of clean energy projects and owns local power utilities in Ohio and Indiana. At $33.4 billion including debt, it is one of the largest acquisitions in the power sector, Sumit Saha reported for Reuters. This continues to drive private equity into the power sector amid growing demand from data centers and other large-scale users. Last year, Minnesota regulators approved the sale of utility company Allete to Global Infrastructure Partners.
China’s EV sales have fallen significantly so far this year: Al Root reported for Barron’s that several major Chinese automakers, including BYD, reported February sales numbers that showed significant declines in China, the world’s largest car market. That’s probably bad news for Tesla, which generated 22% of its revenue from China last year. It is not surprising to see an increase in velocity in China after several years of growth.
Inside clean energy is ICN’s weekly bulletin featuring news and analysis on the energy transition. Send your news tips and questions to (email protected).
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thank you,
and gearino
clean energy reporter
Dan Gearino covers the business and policy of renewable energy and utilities, often with an emphasis on the Midwest. He is the lead author of ICN. Inside clean energy Newsletter. He came to ICN in 2018 after nine years at The Columbus Dispatch, where he ran the energy business. Prior to that, he covered politics and business in Iowa and New Hampshire. He grew up in Warren County, Iowa, just south of Des Moines, and lives in Columbus, Ohio.
