{"id":7558,"date":"2026-08-23T13:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T13:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=7558"},"modified":"2026-08-23T13:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T13:36:11","slug":"gongloff-trump-is-aiding-a-golden-age-for-renewable-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=7558","title":{"rendered":"Gongloff: Trump is aiding a golden age for renewable energy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Given America\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Read more They said it: Ex-congressman under scrutiny<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s biggest energy source, will account for just 9% of new capacity. Geothermal and hydropower are tiny parts of the \u201cother\u201d category in the chart below.<\/p>\n

Despite President Donald Trump\u2019s 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\u2019s whole-of-government approach to pretending climate change doesn\u2019t exist, squashing clean energy and boosting fossil fuels (until they start to become too profitable for political comfort, anyway).<\/p>\n

And between Trump\u2019s 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\u2019t get stuck in the Strait of Hormuz, for one thing. And if you are hastily slapping together a data center to satisfy the world\u2019s appetite for hallucinations and bad advice, then you need electricity quickly and preferably cheaply. Solar, batteries and even wind are satisfying those requirements.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t due to come online until December 2030.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Mark Gongloff is a Bloomberg Opinion editor and columnist covering climate change.\u00a0\u00a92026 Bloomberg. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more People can sense mental decline, says new research powered by smartwatches<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While political rhetoric signals a shift back to fossil fuels, solar, wind and batteries are dominating new grid capacity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nGongloff: Trump is aiding a golden age for renewable energy - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=7558\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gongloff: Trump is aiding a golden age for renewable energy - Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While political rhetoric signals a shift back to fossil fuels, solar, wind and batteries are dominating new grid capacity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=7558\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-23T13:36:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=7558#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=7558\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13065d40d633843429ac57d4e5c06f9b\"},\"headline\":\"Gongloff: Trump is aiding a golden age for renewable energy\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-23T13:36:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=7558\"},\"wordCount\":672,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=7558#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/3c44ba9e277bfe19d8f7f08617690509.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Opinion\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=7558#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=7558\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=7558\",\"name\":\"Gongloff: Trump is aiding a golden age for renewable energy - 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