The Texas sun keeps rising, as Texas coal wanes.<\/p>\n
For the first time ever, solar is set to generate more electricity than coal in the power market managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Nobody is building new coal power plants in the state, but developers are adding more solar there<\/a> than anywhere else in the country. As a result of those diverging trajectories, the federal government expects<\/a> ERCOT will receive 78 billion kilowatt-hours from solar in 2026, and just 60 from coal.<\/p>\n This trend does have seasonal variations. Last year, solar output beat coal on a monthly basis from March through August, and this year it is expected to do so from March through December, per the U.S. Energy Information Administration at the Department of Energy.<\/p>\n Nationally, the combination of wind and solar surpassed coal generation<\/a> in 2024, as noted in an analysis by Ember, a think tank that conducts research on clean energy. In other words, the solar industry is further along in Texas than it is nationwide.<\/p>\n The Texas solar surge undercuts the prevailing energy narratives coming out of the Trump administration, which has attempted to boost coal<\/a> and gas as tools of \u201cenergy dominance,\u201d while blocking or canceling<\/a> American energy that comes from renewables. The Department of Energy, for instance, is keeping struggling coal plants on life support<\/a> at great expense to taxpayers. Meanwhile, the Department of the Interior is blocking wind and solar developments<\/a> that intersect with public lands.<\/p>\n Trump officials have argued that coal is more reliable than solar because it can generate power around the clock. But even with that advantage, coal plants in Texas can\u2019t keep up with the total annual and monthly production from the rapidly growing solar fleet. This has not damaged grid reliability, because ERCOT meets evening demand with a diverse portfolio, including gas plants, nuclear, wind, and, increasingly, batteries<\/a>, which store all that excess solar power for use when the sun stops shining.<\/p>\n