As President Donald Trump‘s top energy official told a gathering of oil and gas executives Monday that there is “simply no physical way” that renewable energy could replace fossil fuels, a new report showed that solar energy added more capacity to the nation’s electric grid in 2024 than any energy technology has in the past 20 years.

The striking new data about clean energy’s growth provided a stark contrast to the fossil-fueled vision laid out by Energy Secretary Chris Wright in his speech at CERA Week, an annual conference of energy industry leaders in Houston.

Wright, a former hydraulic fracturing company executive, downplayed renewable sources as overpriced and trivial contributors to the energy supply, and attacked the Biden administration’s “irrational quasi-religious policies” on climate change.

“I’m honored to play a role in reversing what I believe has been very poor direction in energy policy,” Wright said. “The previous administration’s policy was focused myopically on climate change with people as simply collateral damage.”

The Solar Energy Industry Association’s Solar Market Insight Report found that solar and battery storage accounted for 84 percent of the electric-generating capacity that was added to the nation’s power grid last year.

The U.S. added a record 50 gigawatts of new solar in 2024, the report found, the biggest one-year growth by any energy source in more than two decades.

Texas, the state where Wright delivered his speech, was the top state for new solar last year, adding 11.6 gigawatts of new capacity, according to the report. The Texas approach to power regulation has attracted companies that are attempting innovative ways to add renewable energy to meet growing demand and deliver clean energy to consumers at competitive prices.

Twenty other states also set one-year records for new solar, the report found.

“Solar and storage can be built faster and more affordably than any other technology, ensuring the United States has the power needed to compete in the global economy and meet rising electricity demand,” SEIA president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper said in a statement accompanying the report.

The solar industry report is the latest work documenting the remarkable growth of renewable energy last year.

In late February, the Business Council for Sustainable Energy and BloombergNEF published their annual Sustainable Energy in America Factbook showing that the combined output of wind, solar, hydropower and other clean-energy sources provided 24 percent of U.S. electricity generation last year. Solar and energy storage projects made up more than two-thirds of the new power capacity seeking connection to the grid last year.

New developments in the works promise to push that power output higher. The Factbook identified a record 183 deals for clean-power purchases last year, most of them underwritten by tech companies seeking fast and reliable power for data centers.

Yet another energy sector report released this week shows that the U.S. will likely need more sources of power to keep up with growing demand for electricity.

The latest research from S&P Global Commodity Insights predicts U.S. electricity demand will surge by somewhere between 35 and 50 percent over the coming 15 years due to data centers, new manufacturing and the electrification of vehicles and home heating.

The market momentum for renewable energy appears to be on a collision course with the energy agenda outlined by Wright, which closely adheres to the wishes of the oil and gas industry that contributed heavily to Trump’s election campaign.

The oil and gas sector gave more money to Republican and conservative candidates and political groups in the 2024 election cycle than in any previous election, according to the independent campaign finance watchdog group Open Secrets. Campaign finance data shows the industry spent roughly $237 million in the cycle, with 89 percent of that money going to Republican or conservative groups.

Despite Wright’s rhetorical attacks on renewables and President Trump’s pledge to end what he called “the green new scam,” some clean-energy industry groups are doing their best to avoid an ideological confrontation and instead find common ground with the administration.

Jason Grumet, CEO of the American Clean Power Association, said in a statement accompanying the release of the S&P report that meeting rising energy demand will take an approach to energy that embraces pragmatism, not politics.

“The necessity to embrace all American resources will only occur if both parties move beyond the idea that hydrocarbons and electrons have political affiliations,” Grumet said. “It is time to join together behind a true all-of-the-above energy strategy that lowers prices, creates jobs, and supports our national security.”

Even with solar having a record-setting year, several solar companies have had a rough few months on Wall Street as investors have grown nervous about the political headwinds the industry faces with the Trump administration.

“It’s unfortunately sort of a complicated tale,” Mike Carr, executive director of the Solar Energy Manufacturers for America Coalition, told Newsweek. Demand is growing, he said, and solar equipment makers are on track to open new or expanded facilities in four states this year.

But Carr said a lot is riding on the continuation of tax credits that support clean energy and the domestic production of solar panels and components. Last week, a group of executives from 80 companies ranging from furniture company Ikea to the beer maker Sierra-Nevada Brewing Company visited Capitol Hill to encourage support for clean-energy tax credits amid congressional budget negotiations.

“There is a bipartisan desire to restore manufacturing to the United States,” Carr said. “If that support structure is eliminated, there’s nothing else and so you will have factories closing.”