This week, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) held the 2016 EIA Energy Conference in Washington, D.C. Discussions focused on the state of the energy industry, with a real emphasis on the increasing role of renewables in the United States.

For instance, the EIA projects that renewable energy will surpass nuclear power as quickly as 2020, and coal power by 2028. This will put renewables as a second largest source of power generation in the country, behind only natural gas.

There are several reasons for this continuing growth in renewable energy—particularly wind and solar power. In December 2015, Congress extended federal production and investment tax credits for wind and solar for five years. Another key to these projections is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Clean Power Plan (CPP), the legality of which is currently tied up in the courts. These renewable energy increases are expected to be seen in all regions of the country, with the biggest jumps being seen in the West and the Plains.

In addition, the EIA is optimistic about the declining cost of renewable energy compared to natural gas. Though gas prices are lower right now, the EIA projects them to double by 2025 while renewables such as wind and solar become even more affordable.

According to Steve Clemmer, director of energy research and analysis for the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), this year’s EIA findings are a change from previous years.

“[In 2016], EIA finally lowered their costs for wind and solar to be more in-line with cost data from a large sample of recent projects, as documented by DOE’s national labs and the national wind and solar trade associations,” Clemmer said on the UCS website. “While future EIA conferences … may highlight different topics, I’ll remember 2016 as the year EIA turned the corner to show a bright future for renewables.”

Speakers at the EIA Energy Conference included John Holdren, director, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Arizona Senator Jeff Flake; Texas Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson; Dan Gardner, author and advisor to the Prime Minister of Canada; Steve Kean, president and CEO of Kinder Morgan; and Gregory Goff, chairman, president and CEO of Tesoro Corporation.

Much of the findings presented at the conference can be found in the 2016 edition of the Annual Energy Outlook, which will be released on July 21.