In 2025, the share of renewables in U.S. electricity generation has surpassed 25 percent. Over the course of the past 20 years, their share has continuously risen from just 8.6 percent in 2007. At the same time, coal in electricity generation fell from a share of 49 percent to just 16.4 percent last year. While Trump administration's policies regarding renewable energy and greenhouse gases have yet to show their full effect, experts believe that the sector's strong growth as well as efficiency and cost improvements will cause it to expand further – albeit slower – despite some government funding losses and the end of emission limits.
In 2022, more electricity was generated from renewable sources in the U.S. for the first time over the course of one year than from coal. That year, renewable energy sources created more than 900 terawatt-hours of electric power in the country compared to a little over 800 that came from coal. On a global scale, this change happened last year as renewables outweighed coal electricity generation in the second half of 2025.
Up until 2007, coal accounted for more than 2,000 terawatt hours of electricity in the U.S. before the figure started to declined as regulations around fossil fuels - limits on carbon-intensity and the emissions of toxic elements like mercury - tightened. Electricity generation from natural gas gained pace as a result since it produces somewhat less CO2. To reach the emission goals associated with the net zero age, however, the U.S. would have to continue growing carbon-neutral electricity sources like wind and solar, which have been on a steady upwards climb in the new millennium and are now the second biggest source of electric power in the country.
Looking not only at electricity but energy use as a whole, renewables have a longer way to go in the U.S. and globally. Here, renewable energy made up only 9 percent in 2023 as energy sources outside of electricity - most notably petroleum in the form of gasoline - are added to the mix.
