By: Sarah Montalbano | Commentary, Complete Colorado
Allen Best, at his blog Big Pivots, published recently that Colorado for the first time saw a majority of the state’s energy generation come from renewables:
Colorado achieved an energy and climate milestone during the first quarter of 2026. During those three months, 53% of electricity in Colorado came from renewable sources, up from 43% in 2025, according to an Energy Information Administration report filed in May.
Details matter
The trouble is that this jubilant announcement of a “majority” renewables power grid owes more to a stark drop in coal-fired generation than the wind and solar that was added. Percentages rely on both the numerator — how much wind, solar, and hydropower was generated — as well as the denominator, or how much total generation there was.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Electric Power Monthly net generation by state data, released June 25, demonstrates this. Renewables’ utility-scale generation rose 15.8 percent year-over-year between the first quarters of 2025 (5,934 Gigawatt hours, or GWh) and 2026 (6,872 GWh). However, coal generation dropped by 62% between over that same period, from 4,342 to 1,643 GWh.
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