The U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its Short term energy outlook for 2019 this month - and it's good news for the U.S. electrical grid. even as coal-fired power plants decline. In 2019, a surge in wind power is set to surpass the nation's longstanding renewable mainstay, hydroelectric power. Hydroelectric power generation - a renewable energy source, has been around for at least 100 years, but it is also seeing slow growth due to permitting restrictions and protections of wildlife. In 2017, hydro made up 7.4 percent of total electrical generation. Hydropower was 7.0 percent of total generation in 2018 and EIA forecasts that it will be about the same in 2019 and in 2020.As for solar power, the EIA estimates about 5 gigawatts (GW) of utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity will be added in 2019 and 6 GW will be added in 2020. The EIA expects nearly 9 GW of small-scale solar PV capacity to be installed during 2019–20, mostly in the residential sector.