In a First, the U.S. Just Generated More Power From Solar Than Coal

Current conditions: Las Vegas is well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and could hit 110 degrees by tomorrow • Tropical Storm Cristina is deluging Central America as it barrels toward the coast of El Salvador • Temperatures are already 110 degrees in Minab, Iran, where American missiles struck early this morning.

THE TOP FIVE

1. U.S. resumes strikes on Iran

The two-month ceasefire is over. U.S. strikes on Iran began again Wednesday and continued early this morning as President Donald Trump vowed to make Tehran “pay the price” for stalled negotiations to end the conflict. The second day of strikes came hours after U.S. allies Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan came under Iranian missile fire. In response, oil prices surged yet again, right as U.S. inflation data showed a 4% price spike last month as higher energy prices ripple through the economy. Inflation is now at its highest level since April 2023. The price of West Texas Intermediate crude, the benchmark for American oil, shot up nearly 4% on Wednesday following the strikes, roughly twice the increase for the European and Emirati benchmarks.

2. Solar eclipses coal generation for the first month in U.S. history

Gas and nuclear saw upticks, but solar saw a surge.Ember

Solar panels supplied a record 12.8% of the United States’ electricity last month, while coal fell to 12.2% in its fourth-lowest monthly share ever, according to a new analysis by the pro-renewables think tank Ember. It’s the first time in U.S. history that solar eclipsed coal for a whole month. Solar generated an all-time high of 45.5 terawatt-hours, exceeding its May 2025 output by 17% and surpassing last July’s previous record. This summer is on track to break yet more records. “U.S. solar power continues to set new records,” Nicolas Fulghum, a senior data analyst at Ember, said in a statement. “Overtaking coal for the first month on record shows just how far solar has come, from a niche contributor to the third-largest and fastest-growing source of power in the U.S. electricity system.”

The milestone comes as the U.S. prepares to produce more of its own solar panels. As I told you yesterday, America’s largest solar factory, South Korean giant Qcells’ plant in northern Georgia, is nearly at full capacity.

3. Even Texas wants to restrict data centers now

Texas has a reputation as a place where, if the land is yours, you can do what you want with it. That’s partly why the state has been such a hotbed for data center development. Well, the Republican leadership is pumping the brakes. In a letter to state regulators on Wednesday, Governor Greg Abbott recommended the legislature pass sweeping data center reforms. Among the policy changes The Texas Tribune highlighted:

• Requiring new facilities to add power generation to the state’s power grid
• Requiring data centers pay for their own grid interconnection and infrastructure costs
• Mandating the use of “closed-loop” water systems, which draw a large amount of water at the start but reuse it over some period of years
• Requiring annual reporting by all data centers on electricity and water use
• Establishing best-practice standards to address community concerns like noise
• Repealing data center sales tax exemptions and “other outdated or unnecessary incentives for data centers”

The move comes in response to plummeting support among American voters for data center development. The latest poll from Heatmap Pro, which my colleague Robinson Meyer wrote up earlier this month, found that roughly three-quarters of U.S. voters now oppose data center development in their neighborhoods, including 55% who say they “strongly” oppose server farms.

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4. Energy Department reinstates $58 million grant to American Battery

When the Department of Energy canceled the American Battery Technology Company’s nearly $58 million grant last October, it appeared to many as a sign that the Trump administration would go after virtually any firm awarded money by its predecessors, even if its business aligned with the White House’s policy priorities. But the Nevada-based battery and critical minerals startup said this week that the Energy Department had reinstated the grant, which was meant to support construction of the company’s first commercial lithium refinery. “Of the hundreds of DOE grants terminated last Fall very few have been able to successfully appeal the decisions and have their contracts reinstated,” American Battery Technology CEO Ryan Melsert said in a statement. “I am very proud of our team for relentlessly demonstrating the performance of these internally-developed critical mineral technologies and how crucial it is to implement and scale these commercial facilities to support the national security of the United States and enable its energy dominance.”

The Energy Department is also making moves on fusion. On Tuesday, the agency put out its roadmap for commercializing fusion energy, tapping more than 800 scientists to inform its analysis. “Fusion energy has entered a new era defined by extraordinary scientific progress and public-private momentum,” Darío Gil, the under Energy secretary for science, said in a statement. “With this roadmap, we now have the clarity, coordination, and sustained commitment needed to turn the promise of fusion into a reality for the American people.”

5. Holtec pitches four of its small modular reactors at its shuttered New Jersey plant

Holtec International was once the undertaker of the nuclear industry with a business split between manufacturing storage casks for spent fuel and decommissioning shuttered plants. But the company is nearly ready to turn a shuttered atomic power plant back online for the first time in U.S. history, with its Palisades nuclear station. It’s also considering rebuilding New York City’s defunct nuclear station, Indian Point. All the while, Holtec is racing to build its 300-megawatt pressurized water reactor. The first two units are set to debut at Palisades once the plant’s single older reactor is back online. Next it’s looking at building as many as four of the small modular reactors at Holtec’s half-demolished Oyster Creek nuclear station in southern New Jersey. If approved, the Asbury Park Press reported, the project would generate nearly 1.3 gigawatts of power.

I reached out to Patrick O’Brien, Holtec’s director of government affairs, who confirmed the story. “It’s a potential project post-Palisades SMRs,” he wrote in a text.

THE KICKER

If you’re booking a flight right now, you might not yet be feeling the difference. But U.S. production of jet fuel has reached record highs as refiners scramble to respond to soaring prices following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. By the start of May, the four-week average estimate of fuel production surpassed 2 million barrels per day for the first time on record, according to new analysis by the Energy Information Administration. But with domestic inventories still relatively high, much of that increased production is being exported.