U.S. utilities generated a record amount of energy from renewable sources last year, even as the Trump administration implemented a range of policies to stymie green energy.
About 1,162 terawatt-hours of the country’s electricity was generated from renewable sources in 2025, a 10% increase over the prior year, according to federal data released this week. That represents 26% of all U.S. electricity made — enough to power about 108 million American homes for a year.
Some months were even greener; in March, for example, renewables generated nearly 1 in 3 of the country’s electrons.
That stands in contrast to the Trump administration slashing incentives for wind and solar while gutting clean-air regulations in a bid to help fossil fuels. The economics of renewables have helped them generate a greater share of energy.
“Renewables continue to grow, as much as headlines point to natural gas being king right now,” said Patrick Finn, principal analyst at Wood Mackenzie, an energy research company. “Even though there are plenty of hurdles for renewables coming out of D.C., we’re coming out of four years where there weren’t a lot of hurdles.”
Although several large natural-gas plants opened in the U.S. last year, their capacity was eclipsed by a wave of smaller renewable facilities that came online. Those solar and wind farms weren’t just isolated to blue states. They include the 600-megawatt Hornet solar farm, which opened just south of Amarillo, Texas, in April, and the Beaver Creek wind installation just east of Billings, Mont., which began operating with roughly 248 megawatts of capacity four months later.
The Energy Information Administration, which collects the data, also includes burning wood and other types of waste and landfill gas in its renewables estimates. Generation from those sources declined slightly last year and was dwarfed by wind and solar as well as hydropower.
Although it was a good year for renewables, the surge in energy demand from data centers, electric vehicles and industry also boosted power generated from fossil fuels. That includes a 13% increase in electricity generated from coal. The Trump administration has also supported fossil fuel production and use with grants and orders to delay plant closures.
“American oil production is up by more than 600,000 barrels a day,” President Trump said in his State of the Union address last week. “American natural gas production is at an all-time high because I kept my promise to drill, baby, drill.”
Renewables, however, are outpacing those gains, driven by the falling cost of photovoltaic cells, wind turbines and giant batteries. Even without subsidies, renewable installations are now cheaper to build than alternatives in most scenarios, according to Lazard.
That’s reflected in the pipeline for future U.S. energy installations. Nearly 80% of the power plant capacity planned to be added over roughly the next decade is tied to renewable sources, according to filings with federal regulators and grid operators compiled by Cleanview.co, an energy data company.
Amanda Levin, director of policy analysis at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the pace of green energy construction may actually accelerate as utilities race to beat deadlines for expiring federal incentives.
The government estimates that 93% of new generation capacity expected to be added to the grid this year will come from wind, solar and batteries. That sets renewables up to generate an increasingly large percentage of all U.S. power. Wood Mackenzie expects renewables, including hydroelectric power, to account for nearly 1 in 3 U.S. electrons by 2030.
“The only technologies to be deployed today at scale and at cost are wind, solar and battery storage,” Levin said. “No matter what Trump tries to do, he’s not going to see this resurgence of fossil fuels.”
Stock writes for Bloomberg.
