A Historic Month for Clean Energy
Miguel Iturmendi climbed into the cockpit of a 25-foot electric airplane on a recent Friday and took off — quietly, cleanly, powered entirely by solid-state batteries. The plane, built by his nonprofit Helios Horizon, flew abbreviated pattern flights below 500 feet. It wasn't crossing oceans. But it was crossing a threshold.
That test flight, reported by CleanTechnica, is one small piece of a much larger picture unfolding right now. Across continents and industries, the clean energy transition isn't waiting for permission. It's happening — in the skies, on factory floors, in European polling booths, and in the electricity bills of thousands of people with disabilities in Illinois.
Solar Crosses a Line Coal Can't Walk Back From
In May 2026, for the first time in American history, solar energy outperformed coal in the United States. As CleanTechnica reports, this milestone arrived despite an administration that has handed Big Coal more than $700 million in taxpayer money in recent months, slashed federal renewable energy grants, and issued stop-work orders on wind projects.
It didn't matter. Solar kept winning.
"No matter how much Donald Trump tries to use our tax dollars to resurrect unpopular, expensive, and deadly coal plants, there is no coal renaissance in the United States," Sierra Club Climate Policy Director Patrick Drupp said in a statement. "Solar is still outperforming coal in capacity, reliability, and cost."
The numbers behind that statement are striking. According to CleanTechnica's Q1 2026 Clean Power Market Report, the overall clean energy pipeline grew 6% in the first quarter compared to Q1 2025. Solar led the way with 13% pipeline growth. Battery storage followed with 8%. The U.S. clean energy sector can now power approximately 80 million homes.
Offshore wind remains under severe pressure — its pipeline dropped 35% — but solar and storage are absorbing that headwind and still accelerating.
Community Solar Brings It Home
These aren't just abstract statistics. In the greater Chicago area, Trinity Services — a nonprofit supporting over 6,800 adults and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities and mental health needs — just announced a partnership with clean energy advisor Common Energy to subscribe to five community solar projects.
Over 120 Trinity locations will receive monthly credits on their electricity bills. Residential units will save 20% of the credit value they receive for 20 years. The projects carry a combined capacity of 16 megawatts and will generate approximately 20.7 million kilowatt-hours of clean electricity per year. Over the life of the program, they're expected to avoid more than 563 million pounds of carbon emissions.
This is what the energy transition looks like at street level: long-term savings for people who need them most, delivered through a system that didn't exist a decade ago.
Europe Is Listening to Its Voters
Across the Atlantic, the politics of clean energy are shifting too — and not along the lines politicians might expect. A YouGov poll commissioned by E3G, T&E, and the Electrification Alliance surveyed five major European countries and found that 64% of respondents believe reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels makes Europe safer. Eight in ten said European countries should be working together on energy, with six in ten saying that cooperation has become more important given the current geopolitical climate — a reference to a Strait of Hormuz crisis that, at time of publication, had continued for over 100 days.
Crucially, as CleanTechnica notes, these views cut across traditional left-right political divides. Majorities in Italy (71%), France (66%), Germany (61%), Spain (58%), and Poland (51%) back government financial support for heat pumps. EV funding commands majority support in four of the six countries surveyed.
Clean energy is no longer a fringe political position in Europe. It's the center.
The EV Race Is Getting Faster
On the manufacturing side, the pace is dizzying. BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu told shareholders recently that BYD will become the world's largest automaker by volume within five years, exceeding 10 million units by the end of the decade. "Five years from now, BYD will be able to achieve true global leadership in terms of scale," he said. Executive Vice President Stella Li added that BYD currently has twice as much demand as production capacity — constrained only by the rollout of its new Blade Battery 2.0. China's EV market penetration already hit 63% in May, with Li anticipating it will soon reach 80%.
Meanwhile, automakers everywhere are scrambling on autonomous driving. Stellantis just announced a partnership with AI-driven company Wayve to offer hands-free, door-to-door supervised automated driving — targeted to launch in 2028, starting in North America. And in Vietnam, VinFast's 335-hectare manufacturing complex on Cat Hai Island in Hai Phong is producing a lineup that now stretches from the tiny VF3 city car to the ultra-luxurious Hac Long 900. A CleanTechnica writer who first visited the factory when it was building gasoline-powered models returned recently and found something unrecognizable — in the best possible way.
The Through-Line
A solid-state-powered airplane. Solar outpacing coal. Disability services unlocking clean energy savings. European voters demanding independence from fossil fuels. BYD doubling demand. Autonomous EVs on the horizon.
These stories don't share a headline. But they share a direction. The clean energy transition is no longer a promise made in policy documents — it's a physical reality being built in factories, fields, and cockpits right now. The question isn't whether it's happening. The question is how fast you'll feel it in your own life.
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