![\"Dozens](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Solar-to-overtake-coal-1.jpg\")
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Duke Energy’s Pflugerville Solar Farm in East Travis County, Texas.Scott Coleman\/Zuma<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tGet your news from a source that\u2019s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.<\/a><\/p>\n This story was originally published by\u00a0Canary Media<\/a>\u00a0and is reproduced here as part of the\u00a0Climate Desk<\/a>\u00a0collaboration.<\/p>\n The Texas sun keeps rising, as Texas coal\u00a0wanes.<\/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\u00a0adding more solar there<\/a>\u00a0than anywhere else in the country. As a\u00a0result of those diverging trajectories, the\u00a0federal government expects<\/a>\u00a0ERCOT\u00a0will receive\u00a078\u00a0billion kilowatt-hours from solar in\u00a02026, and just\u00a060\u00a0from\u00a0coal.<\/p>\n This trend does have seasonal variations. Last year, solar output beat coal on a\u00a0monthly basis from March through August, and this year it is expected to do so from March through December, per the US Energy Information Administration at the Department of Energy.<\/p>\n Deep-red Texas offers lessons for the liberal states that have committed to lofty climate goals yet failed to build much solar or batteries.<\/p>\n Nationally, the combination of\u00a0wind and solar surpassed coal generation<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a02024, as noted in an analysis by Ember, a\u00a0think 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\u00a0boost coal<\/a>\u00a0and gas as tools of\u00a0\u200b\u201cenergy dominance,\u201d while blocking or\u00a0canceling<\/a>\u00a0American energy that comes from renewables. The Department of Energy, for instance,\u00a0is keeping struggling coal plants on life support<\/a>\u00a0at great expense to taxpayers. Meanwhile, the Department of the Interior\u00a0is blocking wind and solar developments<\/a>\u00a0that 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\u00a0ERCOT\u00a0meets evening demand with a\u00a0diverse portfolio, including gas plants, nuclear, wind, and, increasingly,\u00a0batteries<\/a>, which store all that excess solar power for use when the sun stops shining.<\/p>\n