Liz Galst 7 minute read # Clean energy more reliable than fossil fuel power, data shows Published: April 30, 2026 ![info-icon](/themes/custom/vital_signs/svg/quick-look-icon.svg)## Quick takes - Recent analyses show that during extreme weather events, **batteries, wind and solar power are more reliable** sources of electricity than power plants that run on coal or gas. - Coal power plants were up to **13 times more likely to fail** than wind farms during recent winter storms. - While gas prices skyrocketed, offshore wind power **saved New England electricity customers $2 million a day** during a December 2025 cold snap. - Big batteries even out the flow of clean energy and improve reliability. Today, utilities have enough **battery storage to replace about 8%** of the nation’s expensive gas peaker plants. Topics - [ Climate and energy ](/all-stories?topic=21&subcategory=21) - [ People and planet ](/all-stories?topic=34&subcategory=34) - [ Clean energy ](/all-stories?topic=21&subcategory=27) - [ Extreme weather ](/all-stories?topic=21&subcategory=29) - [ Law and policy ](/all-stories?topic=21&subcategory=28) Share - [ LinkedIn ](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https://vitalsigns.edf.org/story/clean-energy-more-reliable-fossil-fuel-power-during-extreme-heat-and-cold-data-shows "Share this on LinkedIn") - [ Twitter ](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https://vitalsigns.edf.org/story/clean-energy-more-reliable-fossil-fuel-power-during-extreme-heat-and-cold-data-shows&text=Extreme winter cold and summer heat can lead to power failures. Recent events show that clean energy is keeping the lights on where gas and coal fail. 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Recent events show that clean energy is keeping the lights on where gas and coal fail. "Share this on Telegram") How do you stay warm when your electricity gets knocked out during a winter storm? When temperatures dipped below 10 degrees during Winter Storm Uri, 4.5 million Texas homes and businesses lost power and at least 246 people died. In Austin, James and Lauren Hill hunkered down under their bedcovers with their cats and read. “It’s a bittersweet memory,” James Hill says. A couple of years later, when temperatures in Austin topped 105 degrees for 42 days, the Hills cranked up their AC and hoped desperately that their power wouldn’t cut out. Fortunately, it didn’t. But James felt so scarred from the Uri experience that he couldn’t stop checking the local meteorologist's Facebook page for updates. “I’m like, ‘What’s his analysis of this situation? What do I need to do?’” The Hills are now considering outfitting their home with solar power and a backup battery to make sure they don’t lose power again. That strategy also makes sense for the nation’s electric system at large, according to several new analyses of [extreme weather](https://www.edf.org/issue/extreme-weather) events. New data show that clean energy is keeping the lights on and saving consumers millions of dollars on their energy bills, while gas- and coal power plants are proving unreliable and costly. The analyses contradict the Trump administration's claims that coal power plants are needed for reliability. “Some politicians with agendas are going around telling people we need coal- and gas power plants to supply the grid during cold snaps, heatwaves and hurricanes,” says Ted Kelly, an attorney for the global nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund, who specializes in clean energy. “But the truth is, coal and gas power plants are far less reliable than their boosters admit, and having a diversity of types of clean power — wind, solar, and batteries — helps guarantee our electric supply will be there when we need it most.” ![A road sign with Texas on it and icicles hanging down](/sites/default/files/styles/1440px_width_scale/public/2026-04/GettyImages-1302856902%20%281%29.jpg?itok=pvrKzKTB) ![Sun radiating on a Texas highway](/sites/default/files/styles/1440px_width_scale/public/2026-04/GettyImages-961568872%20%281%29.jpg?itok=_tIn8HZJ) **1:** **2:** Millions of Texans worry about grid stability in both cold and hot temperatures. (*Getty*) ## Fossil fuel power is vulnerable to failure When Winter Storm Fern barreled across much of the U.S. in January, a lot of coal- and gas power plants stopped working. For instance, the grid operator for much of the lower Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic region reported that more than 21 gigawatts of coal and gas power plants — enough to power about 16 million U.S. homes — went offline during the storm as a result of frozen equipment and other mechanical issues. Yet during the cold period that followed Fern, U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright claimed, “Beautiful, clean coal was the MVP of the huge cold snap we’re in right now.” Coal plants usually supply 16.5% of power in that region, compared to a smaller percentage for wind. (Renewables overall, including wind, solar and hydropower, provide 8.6% of the region’s power.) But compared megawatt by megawatt, during those 5 frigid days, coal plants were at least 2.7 times more likely to fail than on- and offshore wind power installations, according to the consulting firm Grid Strategies. In the central part of the U.S., coal plants were even less reliable: up to 13 times more likely to fail than wind farms. Similarly, gas power plants were anywhere from 1.8 to 28 times more likely than wind farms to stop producing electricity. ![Piles of coal outside of a coal power plant](/sites/default/files/styles/1440px_width_scale/public/2026-04/GettyImages-2225117920%20%281%29.jpg?itok=r0aBFuAQ) Coal power plants were up to 13 times more likely to fail than wind farms during recent winter storms. (*Getty*) One reason for the failure rate is the way coal and gas plants are designed, explains Eric Gimon, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan think tank Energy Innovation. These power plants are big operating units. When one or two parts go down, they can take a whole power plant with them. Wind and solar farms and batteries, by contrast, are more modular. The failure of a single wind turbine, a row of solar panels or a battery module is unlikely to take down a whole plant. Coal and gas plants can also be plagued by supply issues created by very the same [weather emergencies](https://www.edf.org/extreme-heat-calls-extreme-action) that are already straining the grid. A drought can constrain water supplies needed to cool a plant in the summer and frigid temperatures can affect fuel supplies in winter. For instance, Winter Storms Uri, Elliott and Heather each resulted in nationwide drops in gas production of more than 15%. While wind and solar power don’t generate electricity all the time, grid operators don’t expect them to — and they plan for it. Meanwhile, heat and freezing temperatures can actually increase their output. “They have fewer points of failure,” Gimon says. ## Environmental news that matters, straight to your inbox ## Fossil fuel power costs consumers more Fossil fuel supplies are finite. When extreme cold or heat drives up demand, prices go up too. During Winter Storm Fern, temperatures plummeted to -3 degrees in places like Worcester, Massachusetts. People across the Northeast needed more gas to heat their homes. The sudden increase in demand for gas sent the price skyrocketing. According to Grid Strategies, power plants had to pay 30-90 times the 2025 average price for gas to run their power plants and customers will see those costs show up on their bills in the coming months. ![An offshore wind turbine](/sites/default/files/styles/1440px_width_scale/public/2026-04/GettyImages-2209222140%20%281%29.jpg?itok=o98C5qxf) Offshore wind is under attack from the Trump administration despite being more reliable and cheaper than gas and coal. (*Getty*) By contrast, during a December 2025 cold snap, offshore wind farms saved New England electric customers $2 million a day, according to the Green Energy Consumers Alliance. While gas prices skyrocketed, winter gusts made offshore wind turbines even more productive, supplying the grid with cheap electricity at a critical moment. Building more [offshore wind power](https://www.edf.org/common-disinformation-about-offshore-wind-power) could help keep electricity prices in check. But the Trump administration has been attacking wind power since Inauguration Day 2025, by blocking construction of already approved wind farms and denying permits to proposed wind power projects. (Some of those efforts were recently blocked by a federal judge.) - [**Court rules Trump administration energy project cuts were illegal**](/8-billion-in-cuts "Court rules Trump administration energy project cuts were illegal") - [**Clean energy could lower electricity costs — if the Trump administration would stop blocking it**](/story/clean-energy-could-lower-electricity-costs-if-trump-administration-would-stop-blocking-it "Clean energy could lower electricity costs — if the Trump administration would stop blocking it") This spring, the Trump administration agreed to pay three companies a total of $1.9 billion to give up their plans to build wind farms off the coasts of New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and California. Says Kelly, "These deals are an outrageous misuse of taxpayer dollars to prevent Americans from having clean, affordable power exactly when they need it most.” ## Solar power is built for heatwaves While winter storms can increase electric demand significantly, scorching summer days are when demand really soars. Summer also happens to be the time when solar power shines, thanks to the long days and clear skies that accompany heatwaves. In fact, “heatwaves are optimal conditions for producing solar power,” Kelly says. In places like Texas, record installation of solar power has helped smooth out spikes in electric demand during an increasing number of broiling-hot days. That number has spiked over the last 50 years, from 7 days that were 95 degrees or higher in San Antonio in 1976 to a dumbfounding 96 days in 2023. “Our governor likes to talk about Texas having a more reliable grid because of all the added capacity in the last 5 years,” says Colin Leyden, EDF’s Texas state director. “The reality is, almost all that added capacity has been from renewable energy.” ![An overhead shot of a large solar farm](/sites/default/files/styles/1440px_width_scale/public/2026-04/resized%20GettyImages-2110527685%20%281%29.jpg?itok=iYGkX8jy) Most of the electricity capacity added to the Texas grid over the last 5 years has come from solar and wind power. (*Getty*) Oil-and-gas-rich Texas (and the rest of the country) is turning to solar power because it is one of the two cheapest forms of new electricity, according to the consulting firm Lazard. Onshore wind power is even cheaper. Solar power is so cheap and easy to install that in the last several years, most of the new power capacity installed in the U.S. has come from solar — 66% in 2024 and 54% in 2025. This year, however, solar is expected to drop to 51% of all new US electric generation, in part because of Trump administration actions that have blocked clean energy. In Texas alone, those efforts have resulted in the cancellation of enough clean energy to power more than 2 million homes, according to a [new report](https://library.edf.org/AssetLink/b76g048rx0argpvln1cds1uv4l0hwa0t.pdf?_gl=1*lo8agt*_gcl_au*MTQ4ODIyMTE0MS4xNzc2Njk4NzEw*_ga*MTEyNTczMTM3OC4xNzc2Njk1ODc2*_ga_2B3856Y9QW*czE3NzczOTg1MTYkbzIwJGcwJHQxNzc3Mzk4NTE4JGo1OCRsMCRoMA) by EDF and the research firm Atlas Public Policy. ## Pairing batteries with renewables offers maximum reliability Of course, the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow. But that doesn’t mean clean energy won’t be available — here’s where batteries come in. On the Puerto Rican island of Culebra, for instance, resident Verónica Meléndez relies on her backup battery and solar panels to manage when severe storms hit or the island’s notoriously unstable electric grid goes down. “It’s been a wonderful experience for me, because I don’t even know when the power on the island goes off,” she says. ![Three men moving a solar panel](/sites/default/files/styles/1440px_width_scale/public/2023-08/Roberto_instalacion-9%20copy%202.jpg?itok=oSIledTP) Solar panels on the Puerto Rican island of Culebra have provided stable electricity for many residents. (*Angel Luis Garcia*) Already, more than 70,000 homes in the U.S. have backup batteries that are charged by solar panels during the day and are poised to kick in when needed. Nationwide, utilities have been investing in giant batteries that can supply the grid. In Texas during Winter Storm Fern, batteries met about 9% of electric demand. Today, across the U.S., regardless of the weather, there’s enough power stored in big batteries to replace about 8% of the nation’s gas peaker plants, the expensive power plants that get turned on only when demand is highest. (Though flashlight batteries can die in the cold, utility-scale batteries work well when temperatures dip.) These big batteries also help even out the flow of clean energy, storing it when there’s a surplus and it’s cheap, sending it back when the demand is high. “You have to think differently about how to manage the system when you're dealing with a different set of resources,” says Gimon, comparing clean energy to that from fossil fuels. But if you want reliable electricity, he says, “wind, solar and batteries are as reliable, if not more so, than gas and coal.” ## Environmental news that matters, straight to your inbox Topics - [ Climate and energy ](/all-stories?topic=21&subcategory=21) - [ People and planet ](/all-stories?topic=34&subcategory=34) - [ Clean energy ](/all-stories?topic=21&subcategory=27) - [ Extreme weather ](/all-stories?topic=21&subcategory=29) - [ Law and policy ](/all-stories?topic=21&subcategory=28) - [ LinkedIn ](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https://vitalsigns.edf.org/story/clean-energy-more-reliable-fossil-fuel-power-during-extreme-heat-and-cold-data-shows "Share this on LinkedIn") - [ Twitter ](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https://vitalsigns.edf.org/story/clean-energy-more-reliable-fossil-fuel-power-during-extreme-heat-and-cold-data-shows&text=Extreme winter cold and summer heat can lead to power failures. 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