Utility-scale solar posts record growth in 2024; projected to supply most of the nation’s increase in electricity generation in 2025 and 2026.
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that, in 2024, the United States added a record 30 gigawatts (GW) of utility-scale solar to the grid, accounting for 61% of new capacity additions to the U.S. electric grid last year.
EIA expected a similar amount of new utility-scale solar capacity to be added in 2025 and 2026.
“The sun shows up for free every day and we can harness its pollution-free energy to power our lives more efficiently and affordably than ever before,” said Johanna Neumann, senior director of Environment America Research & Policy Center’s Campaign for 100% Renewable Energy. “In 2025, getting our electricity from the sun just makes sense.”
EIA forecasts that Texas and California will account for almost half of the new utility-scale solar capacity addition in 2025 and that five other states (Indiana, Arizona, Michigan, Florida, and New York) will each add more than 1-GW of new solar capacity.
