A recent study conducted by researchers in the UK reveals that coal pollution severely impacts solar power production, primarily through the release of aerosols. These aerosols, along with natural cloud cover, resulted in a loss of over 500 terawatt-hours of solar energy in 2023, which is equivalent to the output of 84 coal plants operating at 1 GW capacity. The research utilized a comprehensive global inventory of solar facilities, enhanced by AI-analyzed satellite imagery and crowdsourced data, to estimate potential solar output. Findings indicate that over 25% of the potential solar energy was lost, with 20% attributed to cloud cover and 6% to aerosols. Notably, while solar capacity has increased, the study highlights that 75 terawatt-hours of potential solar output were lost to aerosols in the five years leading up to 2023. This underscores the critical need to address coal-derived pollution not only for health benefits but also to enhance the efficiency of renewable energy sources like solar power.