Renewable energy is not just surviving the second Trump presidency, it is racing ahead and setting records that would have seemed implausible a decade ago. From global investment flows to the share of electricity generated by wind and solar, the numbers now point in one direction. The political fight over climate policy is real, but the market shift toward cleaner power is proving far harder to reverse than the White House might have hoped.
What is emerging instead is a two-track story. President Donald Trump is using federal levers to favor fossil fuels and “beautiful, CLEAN coal,” yet utilities, investors, states, and foreign competitors are betting heavily on renewables. The result is a world in which Trump can slow the transition at the margins, especially in the United States, but cannot stop a structural transformation that is already well under way.
Trump’s fossil push meets a global investment wave
President Trump has made clear that he wants to tilt the energy system back toward fossil fuels. The administration has celebrated “ENDING THE WAR ON BEAUTIFUL, CLEAN COAL,” boasting that wages for coal workers are up and that coal plants across the country are being kept online, while the Department of Energy highlights new projects meant to deliver hundreds of megawatts of coal-fired electricity as proof that promises are being kept to traditional energy communities in Jan. At the same time, the White House has championed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a sweeping tax law that rolled back and reshaped clean energy incentives, creating what analysts describe as a challenging year for renewables and forcing companies to rework project economics under the new One Big Beautiful trajectories.
Yet while Washington reorients federal policy, global capital is moving in the opposite direction. A recent assessment of the energy transition finds that worldwide investment in clean technologies reached a record level, with total energy transition spending climbing to $2.3 trillion in 2025, up 8% from the previous year, and that clean energy supply investment outpaced fossil fuel supply for the second year in a row. Commentators tracking these flows describe “Record Energy Transition Investment” and note that “Clean tech investment continues to accelerate globally,” arguing that this surge is likely to drive electric vehicle and solar sales even more in 2026 as part of a broader Clean boom.
Wind and solar are outgrowing demand itself
The most striking evidence that renewables are breaking away from fossil fuels comes from the power sector. In the first half of 2025, global data show that “Solar and wind growth exceeded global demand growth,” with combined output from these sources rising by 109% of the increase in electricity demand, meaning they more than covered all additional consumption. Within that surge, Solar alone accounted for an 83% increase in generation growth, underscoring how quickly photovoltaic capacity is scaling relative to other sources. That kind of expansion means renewables are not just nibbling at the edges of the grid, they are increasingly responsible for meeting new demand that would once have been served by coal or gas.
In the United States, the same pattern is visible despite federal headwinds. One analysis of domestic power generation notes that “Renewable energy reached nearly 25% of U.S. power generation in June, up from 18% last year,” with Renewable sources gaining share as utilities add wind and solar farms. States like Texas, California and others are repeatedly breaking their own records for wind and solar output, even as the federal government tries to tilt the playing field. Globally, analysts point out that in 2025 “solar and wind surpassed coal as a global energy source,” and that, “Despite Trump, Renewable Energy Keeps Surging,” with the long term described as “bright” for clean power in Despite Trump.
Policy reversals are biting, but only at the margins
None of this means Trump’s policies are irrelevant. A detailed look at U.S. trends finds that “Trump policies cut expected U.S. renewable energy growth by nearly half,” with projections showing that by next year renewables are expected to account for a much smaller share of the American mix than they would have under previous assumptions, according to estimates from the International Renewable Energy Agency cited in an Trump focused analysis. Another assessment of the administration’s agenda lists “Increased Fossil” fuel production, easier permitting for pipelines and drilling, and a push to reshape grid rules as top priorities, arguing that these moves could alter “grid composition and operation” in ways that favor gas and coal, according to a Nov review of “2025 energy trends under Trump 2.0.”
Even so, global system-level studies suggest that the damage is limited. The 2025 Energy Transition Outlook from a major consultancy concludes that “Policy reversals in the US will only have a marginal impact on the global energy transition,” noting that the overall trajectory of renewables deployment and emissions reductions remains largely intact compared with last year’s projections in Policy. A broader Oct analysis from the same group argues that the energy transition is now driven as much by technology costs and global competition as by any single country’s policies, which helps explain why clean energy investment and deployment are still rising even as the United States pulls back some federal support.
States, cities and companies are filling the federal vacuum
Inside the United States, the gap between federal rhetoric and on-the-ground action is being filled by states and local actors. A survey of “2025 wins and emerging trends in state climate policy” notes that “National trends in state climate policy” show that “Despite” the challenging federal dynamics, “states continue to act, and in many cases, lead,” with “Seve”ral legislatures adopting new standards that tie clean energy deployment to reliability and economic competitiveness in Jan. These state-level moves are helping to lock in demand for renewables even as federal tax credits are reshaped by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and other Trump-era policies.
Corporate and household behavior is reinforcing that trend. Installers report that “Global and Local Momentum Underscores the Trend The” shift to solar is happening worldwide, with “Countries” across multiple regions ramping up photovoltaic production and deployment, and that solar companies are “busier than ever” as customers rush to lock in systems that can hedge against volatile fossil fuel prices, according to Global and Local. A separate overview of U.S. records underscores that electric vehicles and rooftop solar are spreading quickly, with utilities and consumers alike responding to cost declines and technology improvements rather than waiting for federal direction, as described in a story on how “the U.S. keeps breaking renewable energy records.”
Why the transition keeps winning anyway
To understand why Trump cannot fully derail this shift, it helps to look at the underlying economics. One climate writer, drawing on the work of science journalist Brannen, argues that the “most realistic path forward” is that clean energy becomes so economically superior that countries adopt it regardless of climate politics, warning that the United States risks being left behind if it does not adapt. That logic is already visible in global markets where wind and solar are often the cheapest new sources of electricity, and where investors see long term risk in assets that depend on burning fuels extracted from finite reserves.
Internationally, the momentum is even clearer. A detailed climate feature notes that “The total sum of solar, wind and hydro (another renewable source) broke a new record in 2024 ‘for the 23rd consecutive year,’” and that “the technology that contributed the most to this growth was solar photovoltaic,” underscoring how consistently renewables have expanded regardless of political cycles in Jan. Another commentary on global trends points out that “Global Renewable Growth Strengthens Amid” U.S. “Policy Uncertainty,” citing the “Introduction IEA” and its “Wor”ld Energy Outlook to argue that the cost profile of renewables supports continued development even when American policy is in flux, a point reinforced in Global Renewable Growth.
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