Renewable energy displaced coal on the U.S. electricity grid in the first quarter of 2026, with hydroelectric generation up 22 percent, solar up 24 percent, and coal generation down more than 10 percent compared with the same period a year earlier. Combined output from wind, solar, and hydro grew by 11 percent year-over-year.
Overall electricity demand in the U.S. grew by 1.5 percent in the first quarter of 2026 compared with the first quarter of 2025. Solar generation offset 80 percent of that increase in demand.
Generation from fossil fuels on the U.S. grid declined by 3 percent year-over-year during the quarter. Natural gas generation grew slightly, while coal generation fell by more than 10 percent. Fossil fuels accounted for about 50 percent of electricity generation on the grid in early 2026, a share that remains around 50 percent when small-scale solar not metered on the grid is included.
Wind, solar, and hydro together accounted for more than 25 percent of total electricity generation on the U.S. grid in the first quarter of 2026. When nuclear generation is added, emissions-free sources exceeded 45 percent of total generation during the period.
Hydroelectric generation surpassed solar as a source of U.S. electricity in the first quarter of 2026, reversing the positions of the two sources from 2025. No major new hydroelectric dams were completed in the U.S. before the first quarter of 2026. Winter temperatures in the western U.S. were unusually warm in early 2026, and snowpack in the Colorado River basin was unusually low due to a lack of precipitation.
The first quarter of 2026 returned the U.S. grid to a pattern of slow demand growth with renewables displacing coal generation. Demand on the grid had risen by about 3 percent in the first few months of 2025, and growth in both electricity demand and coal generation slowed over the course of that year. The U.S. also opened its first large offshore wind farms in 2025 and 2026.