I HAVE NO CORK TO POP FOR THESE THINGS: Don’t pop the cork yet on Colorado’s renewables ‘milestone.’

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.

Overall, Colorado’s total in-state generation actually dropped by 922 GWh in Q1 2026 compared with Q1 2025.

The state produces less energy, and more of what we do produce is higher-cost — which explains my electric rates.