Renewable energies now have the capacity to generate more energy than coal.

When the then candidate, Donald Trump, went to West Virginia in May 2016, he promised to return coal miners to work. "[Y]you're going to be so proud of your president, "Trump told a crowd gathered at a civic center in Charleston, West Virginia.

The reality is that the dominance of the American energy sector by coal ended long ago – more than 60 years ago, to be exact, when it was overtaken by natural gas. A new report now suggests that cheaper and more abundant renewable energy is also reversing coal.

The most recent figures from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission revealed that in April, renewable energies – including wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and hydro – had outperformed coal's power generation capacity for the first time. times of American history. This means that for the first time, clean energy could produce more energy than coal.

Trends in FERC's monthly reports and other similar reports suggest that renewable energy capacity and production are going nowhere, but up, and coal, down, this fall is largely attributable to the cost affordable natural gas and lower construction costs of clean energy projects. This year, the percentage of total available capacity of coal fell to 22.55%, after 22.73% in April 2018.

Meanwhile, renewable energies continue to grow. With the introduction of new renewable energy projects, the total renewable energy generation capacity has increased to 21.56% of the total installed electrical capacity available in the United States. It's only a hair more than 21.55% of the coal, but it's still something. Although the production capacity is not identical to the actual energy production (all production capacity is not used continuously), this indicates that the energy sector is moving from more and more towards renewable energies.

This is not to say that clean energy is about to exceed the huge amount of natural gas in total capacity or production. Natural gas still accounts for about 44% of energy capacity. But that means wind and solar energy is growing faster than any other source, including natural gas. It is expected that 2,510 new solar units and 543 new wind units will be installed by 2022.

Not all will be built, but with these new units, FERC expects wind and solar power to account for at least 54 percent of the newly added capacity by 2022.

An analysis of the FERC report by the Sun Day Campaign, a non-profit group dedicated to sustainable energy, revealed that the total capacity of producing more traditional fuels such as natural gas, coal , oil and nuclear could actually decrease by 2022, the number of retirements exceeding new projects. If the ERC forecasts remain accurate, it means that renewable energy sources could provide a quarter of the energy in the United States by the same year, according to the Sun Day Campaign. A major effort to invest in clean energy by then could tip the scales even further.

According to most scientists and climate activists, the country must not produce more than 25% of clean energy to avoid the worst effects of climate change. But at least the ball rolls.