Where Colorado Gets Its Electricity
Net generation by source · 12-month average, July 2025 – June 2026.
Generation mix
| Source | Share | Generation |
|---|---|---|
| Natural gas | 34.9% | 19,250 GWh |
| Coal | 17.4% | 9,582 GWh |
| Nuclear | 0.0% | 0 GWh |
| Wind | 32.1% | 17,684 GWh |
| Solar | 11.6% | 6,413 GWh |
| Hydro | 3.7% | 2,038 GWh |
| Other | 0.3% | 155 GWh |
55.1 TWh generated over the 12 months to June 2026. Shares are of net generation within Colorado, which is not the same as what the state consumes — power crosses state lines.
Counting rooftop solar
EIA reports small-scale solar — mostly rooftop panels on homes and businesses — separately, and leaves it out of the state generation total that the mix above is a share of. Colorado generated 2,407 GWh that way. Counting it on both sides of the ratio takes solar from 11.6% to 15.3%.
How the mix has shifted since 2001
| Source | 2001 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Natural gas | 20.0% | 31.9% | +11.8 pts |
| Coal | 76.7% | 24.7% | −52.0 pts |
| Nuclear | 0.0% | 0.0% | — |
| Wind | 0.1% | 30.1% | +30.0 pts |
| Solar | 0.0% | 9.8% | +9.8 pts |
| Hydro | 3.2% | 3.3% | +0.1 pts |
| Other | -0.0% | 0.3% | +0.3 pts |
Compared with the U.S. and nearby states
Colorado's generation mix in context
Natural gas supplied 34.8% of Colorado's electricity generation in the trailing twelve months since June 2025, making it the largest source. Renewables—wind, solar, hydro, geothermal and biomass—together generated 46.5% of the state's total, a carbon-free share that matched the renewable figure because Colorado has no nuclear generation. Wind alone accounted for 31.5%, while solar contributed 11.3% when measured as utility-scale generation alone, or 14.9% when rooftop solar is included on both sides of the ratio. Coal supplied 18.5%.
The renewable share ranked 14th among the 51 states and DC with generation data, while solar ranked 8th. Colorado's renewable generation far outpaced the national average of 24.9%, exceeding it by 21.6 percentage points. Coal's 18.5% share was 2.7 percentage points higher than the national figure, but natural gas at 34.8% was 6 percentage points lower than the 40.8% national average.
Over the longer sweep from 2001 to 2025, Colorado's generation mix transformed dramatically. Renewables climbed from 3.4% in 2001 to 43.3% in 2025, with wind rising from nearly nothing to 30.1% and solar emerging from zero to 9.8%. Coal collapsed from 76.7% to 24.7% of generation, while natural gas grew from 20% to 31.9%. Among seven bordering states, three generate larger renewable shares—New Mexico, Kansas and Oklahoma—while four generate smaller ones.
Written from the EIA figures on this page, covering data through May 2026.
Frequently asked questions
›What percentage of Colorado's electricity comes from renewable energy?
›What percentage of Colorado's power comes from solar?
›Where does Colorado get most of its electricity?
›Does Colorado still burn coal for electricity?
›Is Colorado getting greener?
How this is measured
Figures are net generation reported to the U.S. Energy Information Administration for all sectors — utilities, independent power producers, and industrial and commercial plants that generate their own power. Shares are of the 12 months to June 2026, rather than a single month, because generation is strongly seasonal: solar peaks in summer and hydro with the spring melt, so one month says more about the weather than about the grid.
“Other” is the reported total minus the six named sources, so the shares add to exactly 100%. It holds geothermal, biomass, petroleum, other gases, and pumped storage — the last of which consumes more electricity than it returns, and so can be negative. Geothermal and biomass are renewable, which is why the renewable share above is slightly larger than wind, solar and hydro added together.
This is generation, not consumption. Electricity crosses state lines freely, so a state can generate more than it uses or rely on imports for a large part of its supply; neither shows up here.