The biggest solar story isn’t that it passed coal and wind. It’s what happens next

In May, solar generated more electricity than either coal or wind across the United States for the first time in a single month. New figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration show solar produced 47,147 gigawatt-hours, ahead of coal’s 45,119. Over the first five months of 2026, utility-scale solar output rose 21.6 percent from a year earlier, while coal generation dropped 10.9 percent. The agency projects that solar, wind, and battery storage will add about 83 gigawatts of new c...