The US Power Grid Had A Dirty Year in 2025
Electricity emissions rose in 2025 for the second straight year as coal-fired electricity generation rose 12% and electricity demand outpaced renewable growth
For much of the last two decades, America’s power grid was defined by flat electricity demand, declining coal generation, and fewer carbon emissions. Last year, each of those trends reversed.
Electricity demand grew by 2.6% in 2025 due to the growth of data centers, electrification, and extreme heat among other factors. It was the second consecutive year of growth after decades of flat demand.
Renewable energy’s contribution to the power grid rose again in 2025, but not enough to offset the country’s rising electricity demand.
Collectively, the country’s solar and wind projects produced 73.5 million MWh more electricity in 2025 than they did the year before. That’s as much electricity as about 7 million US homes use in a year. Solar’s output grew by 31%, while wind had another sluggish year, only growing by 2%.
Total electricity demand grew by 107 million MWh—or about 10 million homes worth. Electricity generation from fossil fuels filled the remaining gap, rising by about 32 million MWh.
Strangely, most of the growth in fossil fuel power generation came from coal-fired power plants. Coal generation rose by 80 million MWh—more than solar and wind combined.
Trump can take some credit for bringing coal back. Throughout the year, the administration forced utilities to keep operating old coal plants that were supposed to retire, in most cases against the wishes of the utility and at significant cost to consumers.
But the more important factors behind the resurrection of coal, which had long been in decline, were high natural gas prices and growing electricity demand. “The power sector’s consumption of coal has increased this year as the average cost of natural gas in the electric power sector increased over 40% compared with 2024. More overall electricity demand has also supported coal consumption this year,” analysts at the Energy Information Administration wrote at the end of last year.
Coal and natural gas power plants are always competing by bidding into electricity markets across the US. When gas prices are higher, coal plants win those bids more often, generating more electricity and emissions.
Carbon emissions from the power grid rose by 4.4% in 2025, due almost entirely to the growth of coal power generation. That’s more emissions growth than any year since 2021, which was a weird COVID recovery year.
For much of the last decade, the power grid has been a rare example of a huge sector getting cleaner by the year. The story of America’s decarbonization since about 2010 has really been a story of grid decarbonization. Basically no other part of the economy of significance has seen much progress.
But that decarbonization happened during a period of falling electricity demand. When solar and wind produced more electricity, they cut into a shrinking pie, and cut emissions in the process.
2025 proved that we’re no longer in that era.
