Regardless of shifting political winds in the U.S., renewables are surging ahead. In a landmark moment for the American power grid, wind and solar energy together outpaced coal for the first time in 2024, according to a new report from energy think tank Ember.
For decades, coal was the backbone of U.S. electricity generation, fueling factories, homes, and economic growth. But in 2024, solar and wind combined to generate 17% of the nation’s electricity—edging out coal, which dropped to just 15%. That’s a historic low for coal in a country that once relied on it for more than half of its power.
The Age of Electricity Arrives
This year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) declared that the world is officially leaving behind the Age of Coal and Oil. We are now entering the Age of Electricity. In all fairness, there is a bit of wishful thinking in that. Oil and gas in particular, but also coal, still play a huge role in global energy systems. But solar, wind, and batteries are not surging ahead. They’re just supplementing fossil fuels—they are replacing them.
The shift is happening almost everywhere. OECD nations, including the United States and European Union, are accelerating their transition away from coal and gas. The UK, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, shut down its last coal-fired power plant. Meanwhile, wind and solar overtook fossil fuels in the European Union for the first time, generating 30% of electricity in the first half of the year, compared to fossil fuels’ 27%.
In the U.S., wind and solar set another milestone: together, they produced more electricity than coal from January to November. Even more striking, wind power alone outperformed coal in March and April. The numbers are staggering: solar and wind supplied 90 terawatt-hours (TWh) more electricity compared to the same period last year—enough to power 9 million homes.
“Solar is winning,” Ember chief analyst Dave Jones told The Verge. “It added more generation than gas in 2024, and batteries will ensure that solar can grow more cheaply and quickly than gas.”
Batteries and Policy
The problem with renewables was always energy storage: you can only generate electricity during some parts of the day, so you need ways to store it for renewables to stand on their own. That’s exactly what we’re witnessing now, as battery costs are plunging. The price of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which do not require expensive materials like cobalt or nickel, has fallen dramatically. In India, battery storage costs have halved in just three years, from $450 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in 2021 to around $200/kWh in 2024.
By 2030, grid-scale battery capacity is projected to rise tenfold. This means that for every 6 MW of renewable energy added, 1 MW of battery storage will be installed. Countries are investing in battery storage at record levels. In India, 16 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of grid-scale battery storage have been tendered, with 211 megawatt-hours (MWh) already operational. In the EU, battery storage capacity doubled to 16 GW last year.
As solar and wind make up a larger share of the grid, batteries will ensure a stable power supply even when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing.
Of course, renewable energy’s rapid ascent hasn’t come without obstacles. The Trump administration has attempted to stifle its growth, cutting funding, halting federal approvals for wind farms, and imposing tariffs that could raise costs for new projects. These counter productive policies have had an impact, but market forces have kept renewables marching forward, despite political headwinds.
“When project developers are considering which resources to deploy in the grid, they look 20, 30, 40 years down the line,” Timothy Fox, a managing director at ClearView Energy Partners told The NY Times. “From that perspective, it’s hard to envision building a coal plant today.”
However, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 injected new life into renewables with tax credits, while state regulations pushed utilities to transition away from fossil fuels. More than 20 states, including Minnesota, North Carolina, and Nebraska, now mandate that all electricity come from clean sources by 2050 or sooner.
Even some utilities, once staunch coal defenders, have started backing away. In states like Michigan and Louisiana, environmental groups successfully blocked utilities from passing coal-related costs onto customers. And in New England, coal plants have vanished entirely.
A Global Shift
The numbers from 2024 paint a clear picture: the energy transition is no longer a slow, theoretical shift—it is happening now, and it is accelerating. The world is moving toward a clean electricity system driven by solar, wind, and batteries.
For the first time, entire regions are generating more electricity from renewables than fossil fuels. Storage solutions are catching up. Costs continue to plummet.
The fossil fuel era is fading. The Age of Electricity has arrived.
