Donald Trump has wielded the full might of his administration to crush the progress of clean energy, which he has called a “scam” and “stupid”. But there are signs this assault is not going to plan.
In March, the US generated more of its electricity from renewable sources such as solar and wind than it did via gas, the first time clean energy has surpassed the planet-heating fossil fuel for a full month nationally, according to data from the Ember thinktank.
While this was just one month, it follows a record 2025 for renewable energy. The pipeline of new power coming online in the US is overwhelmingly green this year, too, with 93% of all electricity capacity added in 2026 set to come from solar, wind and batteries. Just 7% will come from the fossil fuels that are dangerously overheating our world.
We do use nuclear. Though at this point it’s looking like wind/solar/battery is going to be cheaper, if it isn’t already.
more importantly to the people in charge of the spending, deploys and gets its returns faster. Nuclear you are looking a decade before it starts being operational and then another couple decades to recoup the cost. Solar can be up and running in months and recoup within a decade.
By the time a new nuclear plant breaks even on the capital expenditures to build it, a competing solar plant has already been built, operated for a few decades, and been torn down/decommissioned for even newer tech. That 80-year nuclear plant has to compete with like 3 successive generations of solar plants/batteries, advanced geothermal, and maybe even commercialized fusion. Building a new nuclear plant is a decision to saddle your grandchildren with a payment plan on locked in costs of construction today.
I heard of people covering the cost of solar within a year in some extreme cases during the last energy crisis.
Depends on the accounting, if you count panels only the cost gets recouped extremely fast. Most of the cost is on the inverter and labour cost of installing them.