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Clean technologies generated more than half (50.8%) of all US electricity for the first month on record in March 2025, according to data collated by research group Ember.
The milestone was achieved largely thanks to an increase in wind and solar power, which reached a record 24.4% of US electrical output in the month. Solar generation was up 37% from a year before while wind power increased 12%. In comparison, fossil generation fell 2.5%.
For context, in March 2015, fossil fuels made up 65% of US electricity generation, while wind and solar combined made up just 5.7% of the mix. By 2024, wind and solar (17% of annual output) had overtaken coal’s contribution (15%).
Solar’s rise has been particularly “extraordinary,” Ember said in a statement. A decade ago, the technology accounted for just 1% of US electricity generation. By March 2025, this had grown to 9.2%.
And solar’s advance is set to continue, despite president Donald Trump’s efforts to effectively reverse the energy transition.
The technology is set to account for more than half of new generating capacity installed in the US in 2025, with more than a third of new panels going to Texas.
The US is now “approaching a tipping point where clean power takes the lead over fossil generation, and where the importance of coal and gas inevitably starts to fade,” says Nicolas Fulghum, a senior data analyst at Ember.
“Wind and solar power are pushing fossil fuels out of the mix. The reality on the ground is not one of a return to fossil fuels in the US, it’s the continued growth of solar and wind power that will be the dominant driver of electricity generation growth in the US.”
