Mark Gongloff: Trump is aiding a golden age for renewable energy

Mark Gongloff, Bloomberg Opinion on Aug 12, 2026

Published in Op Eds

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Given America’s political environment, you would be forgiven for thinking the country has slipped into a dark age of energy recidivism; burning oil, gas and coal left and right; and tossing wind and solar farms on the scrap heap.

In reality, this is looking a lot like a golden age for renewable energy in the U.S., not just in spite of the political winds but partly because of them.

The country is on track to install nearly 85 gigawatts (GW) of electrical generating capacity in the next 12 months, according to preliminary Energy Information Agency data on planned projects. And of that new capacity, about 90% will be generated by solar, wind and batteries. Natural gas, currently the country’s biggest energy source, will account for just 9% of new capacity. Geothermal and hydropower are tiny parts of the “other” category in the chart below.

Despite President Donald Trump’s vigorous efforts to revive coal, the antiquated fuel will make up exactly 0% of the new capacity. In fact, the renewables boom is happening despite Trump’s whole-of-government approach to pretending climate change doesn’t exist, squashing clean energy and boosting fossil fuels (until they start to become too profitable for political comfort, anyway).

And between Trump’s on-again, off-again attacks on Iran and his cheerleading of an unfettered AI rollout, his own policies have made renewable energy more attractive. It can’t get stuck in the Strait of Hormuz, for one thing. And if you are hastily slapping together a data center to satisfy the world’s appetite for hallucinations and bad advice, then you need electricity quickly and preferably cheaply. Solar, batteries and even wind are satisfying those requirements.

Fossil gas is still relatively plentiful, cheap and popular. But demand for gas turbines has stretched wait times out for years. And a recent study by Penn State University engineers, funded in part by Tesla Inc., found that the rapid start and stop of AI training in data centers is wearing out turbines that were intended for steadier output, drastically shortening their lifespans. Meanwhile, the first new nuclear facility on the horizon, Kemmerer Power Station in Wyoming, isn’t due to come online until December 2030.

It’s little wonder, then, that solar and batteries made up 80% of the 53 GW of capacity the U.S. added in 2025 and 76% of the 25.3 GW installed this year through May (the latest data available). Even Trump’s hated wind energy, which he claims causes cancer and kills whales, has added 6.3 GW of capacity so far this year, including 800 megawatts of offshore power.

This is all more evidence for the growing sense that renewables, contrary to what skeptics often claim, can stand on their own without government support. In fact, the green businesses so derided by Trump and his fellow conservatives, including clean energy, efficiency and water management, are now a $10 trillion global industry, according to a recent London Stock Exchange Group Plc report.

Investors noticed long ago. Green stock market gauges like the S&P Global Clean Energy Transition Index consistently trounce the broader market. And cleantech companies pulled in $60 billion in equity funding in the first half of 2026, according to BloombergNEF, the best six months since the good old Inflation Reduction Act days of 2022.

Much of this enthusiasm comes from the AI boom and is therefore vulnerable to an AI bust. Planet-heating fossil fuels are still a dangerously large share of America’s energy mix. But every new solar array or wind farm that gets built today might prevent another coal plant or gas turbine from being built next year. Time is money, and both are on the side of renewables right now.

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This column reflects the personal views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Mark Gongloff is a Bloomberg Opinion editor and columnist covering climate change. He previously worked for Fortune.com, the Huffington Post and the Wall Street Journal.

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