American energy generation has gotten just a little bit cleaner this year. Data from the Energy Information Administration suggests that wind power is a bigger source of electricity than coal for the first time ever. Data from the agency says that wind was responsible for 47.7 million megawatthours of energy in April, vs. coal’s 37.2 million megawatthours.
At one point, the EIA predicted that this would happen.
“Generation from coal-fired power plants has the sharpest decline in the forecast as a result of growing renewable energy sources, low natural gas prices, and continuing retirements of coal-fired power plants,” the agency wrote in an energy sector outlook this December. “We forecast that coal-fired power plants will generate less in 2024 (599 billion kwh) than the combined generation from solar and wind (688 billion kWh) for the first time on record.”
But what the agency hadn’t predicted was that wind would accomplish the overtake all on its own.
Still, a Supreme Court decision decided in favor of those seeking to weaken climate change goals. That, plus increasing energy demand from artificial intelligence systems, could prompt a coal resurgence. The Washington Post reported that AI power needs are delaying the retirement of many coal-fired power plants. This remains a fragile transition, but one that would be tremendously important for the planet should it take hold.