Washington DC – A review by the SUN DAY Campaign of data just released by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) reveals that the combination of solar and wind accounted for 90% of new U.S. electrical generating capacity added in the first seven months of 2025. In July, solar alone provided 96% of new capacity, making it the 23rd consecutive month in which solar has held the lead among all energy sources.
Solar was 96% of new generating capacity in July and 74% year-to-date:
In its latest monthly “Energy Infrastructure Update” report (with data through July 31, 2025), FERC says 46 “units” of solar totaling 1,181 megawatts (MW) were placed into service in July, accounting for over 96.4% of all new generating capacity added during the month.
The new facilities include the 202.8-MW Estonian Solar & Storage Expansion Project in Delta County, TX; the 200.0-MW Eland Solar Farm and the 150.0-MW Northern Orchard Solar PV project both in Kern County, CA; and the 150.0-MW Coldwater River Solar Project in Branch County, MI.
The 434 units of utility-scale (i.e., >1-MW) solar added during the first seven months of 2025 total 16,050-MW and were almost three-quarters (74.4%) of the total new capacity placed into service by all sources.
Solar has now been the largest source of new generating capacity added each month for twenty-three consecutive months: September 2023 – July 2025. During that period, total utility-scale solar capacity grew from 91.82 gigawatts (GW) to 153.09-GW. No other energy source added anything close to that amount of new capacity. Wind, for example, expanded by 10.68-GW while natural gas increased by just 3.74-GW.
Renewables were 90% of new capacity added year-to-date:
Between January and July, new wind has provided 3,288-MW of capacity additions – significantly more than the new capacity provided by natural gas (2,207-MW). Wind thus accounted for 15.2% of all new capacity added during the first seven months of 2025. Other than solar, the largest project to come on-line in July was the 15.5-MW Tehachapi Wind Resource II Expansion in Kern County, CA. It provided eight times more capacity than the 2-MW of new gas added in July.
For the first seven months of 2025, the combination of solar and wind (plus 4-MW of hydropower and 3-MW of biomass) was 89.6% of new capacity while natural gas provided just 10.2%; the balance came from coal (18-MW), oil (17-MW), and waste heat (17-MW).
Solar + wind are almost a quarter of U.S. utility-scale generating capacity; all renewables combined are over a third:
Utility-scale solar’s share of total installed capacity of (11.42%) is now almost equal to that of wind (11.81%). Taken together, they constitute nearly one-fourth (23.23%) of the U.S.’s total available installed utility-scale generating capacity.
Moreover, at least 25-30% of U.S. solar capacity is in the form of small-scale (e.g., rooftop) systems that are not reflected in FERC’s data. [1] Including that additional solar capacity would bring the share provided by solar + wind to more than a quarter of the nation’s total.
With the inclusion of hydropower (7.61%), biomass (1.07%) and geothermal (0.31%), renewables currently claim a 32.22% share of total U.S. utility-scale generating capacity. If small-scale solar capacity is included, renewables are now more than one-third of total U.S. generating capacity.
Solar remains on track to become the second largest source of U.S. generating capacity:
FERC reports that net “high probability” additions of solar between August 2025 and July 2028 total 92,631-MW – an amount more than four times the forecast net “high probability” additions for wind (22,528-MW), the second fastest growing resource.
FERC also foresees net growth for hydropower (579-MW) and geothermal (92-MW) but a decrease of 131-MW in biomass capacity.
Taken together, the net new “high probability” capacity additions by all renewable energy sources over the next three years – i.e., the bulk of the Trump Administration’s remaining time in office – would total 115,120-MW.
On the other hand, there are only 35-MW of new nuclear capacity in FERC’s three-year forecast while coal and oil are projected to contract by 25,017-MW and 1,576-MW respectively. Natural gas capacity would expand by just 8,276-MW. [2]
Should FERC’s three-year forecast materialize, by mid-summer 2028, utility-scale solar would account for more than 17% of installed U.S. generating capacity – more than any other source besides natural gas (40%). Further, the capacity of the mix of all utility-scale renewable energy sources would exceed 38%. Inclusion of small-scale solar systems would push renewables ahead of natural gas.
“With one month of Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ now under our belts, renewables continue to dominate capacity additions,” noted the SUN DAY Campaign’s executive director Ken Bossong. “And solar seems poised to hold its lead in the months and years to come.”
