For the first time, Utah produced more power from solar than any other source, according to an Aug. 3 article in The Salt Lake Tribune.

In May, photovoltaic (PV) panels in the state generated approximately 1 terawatt-hour (TWh) of electricity—almost a third of all electricity the state generated that month—while natural gas generated 32%, coal 28% and wind 2%, according to think tank Ember Energy. 

Utah has completed several large solar farms in recent years, with investors committing $1.5 billion to the state’s solar market in 2025, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. These projects include Green River Energy Center in Emery County, which generates 400 megawatts (MW) of solar and 400 MW of battery storage; Excelsior Energy Capital’s Faraday Solar Project in Utah County, which generates 685 MW for the Meta data center; and Elektron Solar Project, which supplies 80 MW to Park City, Salt Lake City and Summit County.

Solar is having its moment in the sun across the country, setting and breaking six separate records in the first half of 2026, according to a July 2026 blog post from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). For the past five years, America’s largest source of new electricity generation has been solar, with storage quickly catching up.

Solar production reached a record of 34.427 gigawatts (GW) on May 13 and broke that record again when it reached 35.425 GW on July 9, SEIA said. Over the past three months alone, several major grid operators—Southwest Power Pool, Independent System Operator New England, Midcontinent Independent System Operator and Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection—set new records for solar generation and maximum load, according to SEIA. 

During the first quarter of 2026, solar and energy storage made up 91% of new electric grid generation capacity, according to SEIA’s Solar Market Insight Report from June. And the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that this year, 51% of new utility-scale electricity generation added to the U.S. grid will come from solar.

In May, solar power generated more electricity than coal for the first month on record—generating 45.5 TWh or 12.8% of the U.S. monthly electricity mix, according to Ember Energy. This eclipses May 2025’s solar output by 17%.

Coal-generated electricity has been experiencing a long-term decline in the country and globally. Before 2007, coal generated more than half of the nation’s electricity, while in recent years, it has only generated 15%–17%, according to a graph titled “U.S. electricity generation by major energy source, 1950–2025” from the EIA. In 2025, coal was the third-highest source (about 17%) of electricity generation in the country, according to the EIA. And in May 2026, coal-generated electricity fell even further, to 12.2%, noted Ember Energy.