For one month in April 2025, solar energy powered more than 10% of all electricity consumed in the United States. It was the first time that had ever happened.
By the end of the year, that milestone was a footnote in a much larger story. US solar generation reached **385 TWh in 2025** — a 25% increase over 2024, and the highest single-year output in American history. Combined with wind (which supplied 10.3% of total US generation), clean energy from these two sources alone outpaced both coal and nuclear power for the year.
And according to the US Energy Information Administration, 2026 is set to be bigger still.
**The Numbers**
The 2025 figures, confirmed by EIA data and analysed by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), tell a story of a technology moving from growth market to dominant infrastructure:
- **385 TWh** of solar electricity generated — up 25% from 2024 - **54%** of all new electricity-generating capacity added to the US grid in 2025 came from solar - Solar and storage (battery projects paired with solar installations) combined for **79%** of all new capacity - For the first time in April 2025, solar provided over **10%** of the nation's electricity for a full month - Wind and solar combined grew by **12.9%**, crossing the threshold where they generate more electricity than coal and nuclear together
The growth wasn't confined to utility-scale facilities. Distributed solar — rooftop systems on homes, businesses, farms, and schools — continued expanding rapidly, driven by falling panel costs and rising grid electricity prices that make self-generation increasingly attractive.
**2026: The Forecast**
The EIA's Short-Term Energy Outlook, published in March 2026, projects that the US will add **43.4 GW** of new utility-scale solar PV capacity this year — a **60% year-on-year increase** from 2025's already-record deployment.
Total new utility-scale capacity for 2026 is projected at 86 GW, with solar accounting for more than half. The remainder is predominantly wind and battery storage. New fossil fuel generation additions are projected at a fraction of that figure.
If the forecast holds, solar will be firmly established as the primary driver of US electricity expansion — a position it would have been implausible to predict as recently as 2015, when the entire US solar fleet generated less than 26 TWh per year.
**The Grid Is Adapting**
One of the structural concerns about solar power has always been intermittency — the sun doesn't shine at night, and grid stability requires power on demand. The rapid growth of co-located battery storage is increasingly addressing that constraint.
In 2025, the US added more battery storage capacity than in any previous year. Large-scale projects in California, Texas, and Florida are now able to absorb solar generation during peak afternoon hours and release it into the evening, when demand peaks and solar output drops.
The result is that the grid's ability to use solar — not just generate it — is growing alongside the capacity itself.
**What the Acceleration Means**
The International Energy Agency has noted that globally, renewables added in 2025 outpaced all previous years, with solar alone accounting for the majority of new clean energy capacity worldwide. The US figures are part of a pattern, but they're also a meaningful driver of it: US demand for solar panels, inverters, and storage technology is influencing manufacturing scale globally, driving down per-unit costs that benefit energy transitions in developing economies as well.
For individuals, the shift shows up in electricity bills, in rooftop panels, and in the gradually changing composition of the power flowing through plugs and switches. For the planet, it shows up in the carbon content of every kilowatt-hour — which, in the US, is falling year on year.
In April 2025, solar crossed 10% of national generation for the first time. The question being asked in energy circles now is not whether that threshold will become routine. It's how quickly the number after the 1 will change.
*Sources: US Energy Information Administration (EIA) Short-Term Energy Outlook March 2026 · SEIA Solar Market Insight 2025 Year in Review · PV Magazine March 13, 2026 · PV-Tech · IEA Renewables 2025*
