Renewable power is no longer a niche experiment at the edge of the grid. It is now the main engine of new electricity capacity in the United States, even as President Donald Trump tries to tilt policy back toward fossil fuels. The numbers show a sector hitting record after record while the White House scrambles to slow it down.
Trump can rage against wind turbines and solar farms, but the combination of plunging costs, surging demand and local innovation is proving stronger than any single administration. The result is a collision between federal efforts to prop up coal and gas and a market that keeps choosing cleaner, cheaper options.
Policy blitz from Washington, and why it is not working
President Trump has made clear that he prefers fossil fuels, and his administration has treated renewables as a political enemy rather than an economic opportunity. On July 4, On July, President Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful,” which makes steep cuts to solar energy incentives and adds new restrictions that clean power advocates say will slow projects and the growth of U.S. manufacturing. The Trump Admin has also been rolling back environmental rules and canceling green energy projects, with The Trump administration targeting programs that help local communities access clean power.
The hostility runs beyond budgets and permitting. The US State Department’s office that handled climate negotiations has been abolished as “unnecessary,” leaving it unclear who speaks for The US in global climate talks, while allies watch Washington double down on a futile effort to revive coal in the words of critics at the Environmental Protection Agency cited in The US. At the same time, the White House insists that “Ensuring the American people have reliable and affordable electricity is one of President Trump’s top priorities,” as a White Hou spokesperson put it, even while globally the price of wind power has fallen and U.S. gasoline prices have sat above the national average since October 2024.
The numbers that show a boom, not a retreat
For all the turbulence in Washington, the capacity figures tell a different story. Let me start with the numbers that clean energy analysts highlight: During a year full of headline grabbing destruction of U.S. clean energy policy, renewables still led new power additions, a trend detailed in an assessment that begins, “Let’s start with the numbers,” and notes that During Trump’s latest push against climate policy, renewables still expanded. One analysis of grid data found that 92% of all new electricity capacity added in the US was solar, with Trump’s efforts to slow the sector only making it more expensive for America to cling to older fuels.
Even Trump aligned rollbacks have not stopped developers from racing ahead. One review of 2025 grid additions found that Still, Solar and battery storage are booming, with Solar and storage accounting for 85 per cent of the new power added to the grid in that period, a sign that batteries are moving from optional to essential. A separate summary of the same year described it as “the year Trump tried and failed to stop clean energy,” again stressing that a whopping 92% of new capacity was solar, underscoring how far the market has already shifted away from coal and gas.
Why the market keeps choosing renewables
The core reason Trump cannot reverse this transition is economic gravity. Wind and solar are now the cheapest sources of electricity almost everywhere and the fastest to build, a reality that climate advocates describe bluntly as a warning against using rising electricity demand as a green light for unchecked pollution, rather than a chance to invest in Wind and solar that protect jobs, communities and America’s future. That same analysis asks whether the US is headed toward a new fossil fuel buildout as AI needs are fueling demand, or whether it will lean into clean power instead, a choice that will shape bills and emissions for decades, according to The Trump Admin’s critics.
Corporate leaders are reading the same spreadsheets. Executives at NextEra Energy, the country’s largest renewable developer, have walked a tightrope by saying wind, solar and batteries are essential to meeting demand, even as they publicly praise some of Trump’s broader economic policies. Analysts quoted in another assessment argue that Ultimately, states and cities that do not commit to the clean transition risk getting left behind, with Ultimately the market rewarding those that embrace a clean economy going forward, regardless of what The Trump administration tries to do from Washington, as detailed in The Trump focused analysis.
Local innovation and the “unstoppable” grid shift
While the federal government pulls levers to slow clean energy, cities, states and communities are quietly building the next grid. Some US organizations are moving ahead with programs that bring solar and other clean energy sources to local communities, even as The Trump administration has been canceling green energy projects. Solar panel installations continue across the country, keeping the energy transition moving forward, Despite the political headwinds. Even geothermal, long described as the “redheaded stepchild” of renewables, is poised to rise, with most federal geothermal programs housed in the Department of Energy’s Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, a frequent target of a staunchly pro fossil fuel administration, according to reporting on the Office of Energy.
Grassroots and state level strategies are also blunting federal attacks. Josh Becker and Henry Stern have laid out a blueprint for fighting back that focuses on lowering costs by enabling smart batteries, EV chargers and thermostats, the same kind of demand side tools that helped California integrate large amounts of solar, a model they argue other states should replicate in their Josh Becker and plan. Their argument is that if regulators and utilities embrace flexible demand and storage, they can make renewables more reliable and undercut claims from Trump allies that clean power threatens grid stability, a case they build in detail in the That’s the model they say should spread nationwide.
Solar’s surge and the global context Trump cannot control
Solar power is the clearest example of a technology that has slipped beyond presidential control. Analysts describe how, While an imperfect analogy, the way the Trump administration has treated solar resembles a government trying to block a cheaper, abundant and efficient solution in order to protect incumbents, even as installations keep rising, according to a detailed look at how While solar power is rising even as Trump tries to block it. A separate climate analysis notes that globally, the price of wind has fallen and that electricity prices in many countries are being held down by renewables, even as U.S. consumers face higher bills linked to fossil fuel volatility, a contrast highlighted in the same Globally focused report.
Internationally, What Trump cannot stop is a broader wave of Renewable deployment that is setting world records, with clean power meeting a growing share of electricity demand even as fossil fuel consumption for electricity generation stagnated, according to a recent overview of What Trump cannot halt in the global Renewable surge. That same reporting, framed under the banner of Climate coverage in English and tagged with CLIMAT, underscores how the US risks ceding leadership in industries that are now central to global trade, a point echoed in another piece that warns Trump’s hostility means the country is falling behind rivals that are racing ahead on clean technology, as critics of his approach to Climate policy in English and European debates over CLIMAT policy have stressed.
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