The US economic boom has passed a critical milestone in April

When we last checked state of the US gridThe continuous explosion of solar energy has made solar energy a very useful, but still far behind, form of electricity that uses fossil fuels. So it was a bit of a surprise when the sources said that May 2026 saw solar energy through coal generation for the first time in the US. Now, with the official release of April grid data by the Energy Information Administration, we can see that solar power generation surpassed coal a month earlier—and by a bit.

The caveat is that a large part of solar production has not reached this group, because it is produced and installed on the roof of a building and used in the building on which it lives.

The situation in April/May was simple. After a brief recovery last year, coal use has been on the decline again, albeit at a slower pace government efforts to promote it. Meanwhile, solar has continued to grow rapidly, driven by its position as a cost-effective way to add energy to many U.S. generators. But this growth started slowly, and the first months of the year were characterized by seasonally low production. As a result, the more than 20 percent year-over-year growth still lags behind solar power and only provides 6 percent of energy to the US grid, a stark contrast to coal’s 16 percent.

The longer days in April, however, will increase solar production, and this will be combined with new installations that are expected to be completed by the end of the year. Add in the continued decline of coal, and the gap between the two has closed considerably. One year ago in April, coal provided 14 percent of the energy on the grid, with solar only 8.3 percent. The corresponding figures for 2026 are 12 percent and 9.4 percent. So, there is a difference, but it is very small.