How Colorado made electricity from 2001 to 2023

Percentage of power produced from each energy source

Coal has been Colorado’s top source of electricity for more than two decades. But coal-fired generation shrank to 32 percent of the state’s power mix last year from 76 percent in 2001. At the same time, natural gas and wind power increased their role in the state’s electric mix. In recent years, wind turbines have supplied more than a quarter of the electricity produced in Colorado, enough to become the state’s second-largest source of electricity in 2021 and 2022. But gas power topped wind again last year.

Colorado aims to get 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2040. The state’s largest utility, Xcel Energy, plans to phase out its remaining coal-burning power plants by 2030 in favor of cleaner alternatives.

Colorado usually consumes more electricity than it generates and imports power from nearby states. (Imports are not shown in the chart above.)