Solar and Wind Power Dominate US Electrical Generating Capacity Additions

Solar and wind energy sources combined accounted for 88% of new US electrical generating capacity added in the first eight months of 2025, with solar energy providing two-thirds of the new capacity in August. This marks the second consecutive year that solar has led among all energy sources. Solar and wind energy each added more new capacity than natural gas, and within three years, the mix of all renewables may top 40% of installed capacity.

Key Takeaways:

• Solar energy provided two-thirds of new electrical generating capacity in August 2025, accounting for 66.4% of all new capacity added during the month.
• The 48 units of solar totaling 2,702 MW placed into service in August 2025 was the second-largest monthly capacity increase by solar in 2025, behind only January.
• The mix of all renewables may top 40% of installed capacity within three years.
• Solar was two-thirds of new generating capacity in August and 73% year-to-date.
• Solar and wind together are almost a quarter of US utility-scale generating capacity.
• Utility-scale solar's share of total installed capacity is now almost equal to that of wind.
• Including small-scale solar capacity would bring the share provided by solar + wind to more than a quarter of the nation's total generating capacity.
• Renewables currently claim a 32.4% share of total US utility-scale generating capacity, increasing to over 40% when including small-scale solar capacity.
• Solar is still on track to become the second-largest source of US generating capacity.

Statistics:

• 48 units of solar totaling 2,702 MW were placed into service in August 2025.
• Solar accounted for 66.4% of all new generating capacity added in August 2025.
• The 505 units of utility-scale solar added during the first eight months of 2025 total 19,093 MW and were 73.4% of the total new capacity placed into service by all sources.
• Solar has been the largest source of new generating capacity added each month for two years straight.
• During the two-year period (September 2023-August 2025), total utility-scale solar capacity grew from 91.82 GW to 156.20 GW.
• Wind expanded by 11.16 GW while natural gas net increase was just 4.36 GW.
• Renewables were 88% of new capacity added year-to-date.
• The combination of solar and wind (plus 4 MW of hydropower and 3 MW of biomass) was 88.0% of new capacity while natural gas provided just 11.9%.
• Utility-scale solar's share of total installed capacity is 11.62%, almost equal to that of wind (11.82%).
• Wind and solar constitute nearly one-fourth (23.44%) of the US's total available installed utility-scale generating capacity.
• Almost 29% of US solar capacity is in the form of small-scale (e.g., rooftop) systems that are not reflected in FERC's data.

Sources:

• SUN DAY Campaign
• Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
• Global Data Point. All Rights Reserved.
• SyndiGate Media Inc. ( ).