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Over 5,000 K-12 schools in the U.S are powered by solar, part of a growing trend. A new study by the Solar Energy Industries Association puts the total capacity at about 910 megawatts, or enough to power 190,000 homes. “The biggest reason for the surge is the economic benefits of solar energy.”

While a hearing this week on repeal of the federal Clean Power Plant drew vocal support in West Virginia, some residents used it as an opportunity to talk about a post-coal future. “People in Appalachia are starting to realize that we need to start thinking about additional ways to have economic development and economic activity,” says the director of Energy Efficient West Virginia. “While coal is going to continue to be part of the economy, I don’t think that anybody is under the illusion that it is going to be the main driver of the economy.”

“The rapid rise of wind and natural gas as sources of electricity” is disrupting traditional energy markets and “forcing more companies to close older generating plants.” The trend is national in scope and does not bode well for the coal industry. “If you don't put your thumb on the scale, then gas and renewables will out-compete coal,” one expert says.

A Northern Colorado power plant, in Larimer County, could close 17 years ahead of schedule as the result of a review by its owner, the Platte River Power Authority, which is looking at cleaner and more affordable options. The plant is a significant customer of coal producers in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming.

An aging Wisconsin power plant that has bought 13,000 tons of Powder River Basin coal on average annually will shut down next summer. The closing coincides with “energy market dynamics that include low natural gas prices, falling demand for electricity, and the continuing move by utilities toward renewable power generation sources such as wind and solar.”

While critics of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan turned out for a West Virginia public hearing on the plan, supporters showed up as well, including public-health advocates and a former coal miner.

A controversial Trump administration plan to prop up the struggling coal industry would cost electricity customers billions of dollars and undermine free markets. “The Energy Department plan has drawn widespread opposition from all parts of the energy industry, even uniting oil and natural gas companies with renewable generators and utilities.”

While the Trump administration’s plans to repeal the Clean Power Plan “will get a mostly warm welcome” during this week’s public hearings on the proposal in Charleston, the decline of West Virginia’s coal industry will most likely continue—and not because of regulation but because market forces will continue to work against coal.

The Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative, which includes 22 school districts, is promoting new possibilities for a region that has been overly reliant on coal mining. “It’s called the resource curse in economics … When you have a company town, what tends to happen over time is you crowd out the potential of other industry to make a case for their future.”

The East Kentucky Advanced Manufacturing Institute this week began classes aimed at teaching new job skills to former coal miners in Johnson County. “Officials said jobs in the manufacturing industry will pay the same or more as what former coal miners were making,” a local television station reports.