Solar energy and battery storage are anticipated to steer new U.S. producing capability additions in 2025, in keeping with the Power Data Group (EIA).
The EIA expects 63 gigawatts (GW) of latest utility-scale electric-generating capability to be added to the U.S. grid in 2025. That is 30% larger than the 48.6 GW of capability added in 2024, the biggest capability set up yr since 2002. Photo voltaic and battery storage are anticipated to contribute 81% of this yr’s capability enhance.
Photo voltaic Additions
In 2024, turbines added a file 30 GW of utility-scale solar energy to the U.S. transmissions community, contributing 61% of capability additions. The EIA expects this pattern to proceed in 2025, with the addition of 32.5 GW of latest utility-scale photo voltaic capability.
Texas and California are anticipated to account for almost half of those additions, with 11.6 GW and a couple of.9 GW to be added, respectively. In the meantime, Indiana, Arizona, Michigan, Florida, and New York are every anticipated so as to add over 1 GW of latest photo voltaic capability in 2025, contributing round 7.8 GW in complete.
Along with the event of latest photo voltaic farms, the U.S. has additionally dramatically expanded its photo voltaic manufacturing sector. In February, the nation’s photo voltaic module manufacturing capability surpassed 50 GW.
Because the introduction of the Inflation Discount Act (IRA), the Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation, and the CHIPS Act, U.S. photo voltaic module manufacturing has grown five-fold, making the U.S. the third-largest photo voltaic module producer on the planet, in keeping with the Photo voltaic Power Industries Affiliation.
Over the past two years, photo voltaic producers have introduced $36 billion in investments within the sector, supporting the creation of an anticipated 44,000 manufacturing jobs. This funding is anticipated to extend the whole photo voltaic module manufacturing capability to 56 GW, which is sufficient to meet the U.S. photo voltaic challenge pipeline demand. That is key contemplating that the Trump administration is threatening tariffs on the import of assorted merchandise from Canada, Mexico, China, and different nations.
Battery Storage Additions
U.S. battery storage additions might attain file ranges this yr, with 18.2 GW of utility-scale battery storage anticipated to be added to the grid, larger than the file determine of 10.3 GW added in 2024. This marks a major enhance from the 4 megawatts (MW) added to the grid in 2010. By July 2024, there was over 20.7 GW of battery vitality storage within the U.S.
Battery storage helps to stability provide and demand and enhance grid stability. It’s anticipated to play a number one position in the way forward for the world’s vitality because the U.S. and different nations worldwide enhance their renewable vitality capability. Batteries shall be used to retailer extra electrical energy from renewable vitality tasks, akin to wind and photo voltaic farms, throughout excessive manufacturing hours. They’ll retailer this vitality to ship to shoppers throughout low/no manufacturing hours. For instance, it should provide electrical energy from photo voltaic tasks to the grid at night time, when the solar shouldn’t be shining however the energy demand stays excessive.
Whereas the U.S. battery storage capability is anticipated to extend this yr, the business might undergo from the imposition of tariffs on imports by the Trump administration, because the U.S. continues to be closely reliant on China for its lithium-ion batteries.
In 2023, the U.S. had 60 GWh of lithium-ion battery manufacturing capability for all purposes. Nonetheless, the demand for batteries for electrical autos alone exceeded this capability. Within the second quarter of 2024, China contributed 82% of U.S. lithium-ion battery imports, adopted by Japan, Hungary, South Korea, and Poland.
President Trump’s introduction of extra 10% tariffs on Chinese language items, on prime of the prevailing tariffs, might have a major affect on the value of U.S. battery imports.
Different Power Sources in 2025
The EIA expects 7.7 GW of wind vitality capability to be added to the U.S. grid in 2025, a rise from 5.1 GW in 2024. Texas, Wyoming, and Massachusetts will contribute almost half of all new wind additions.
Pure fuel is anticipated to contribute 4.4 GW of latest grid capability this yr, with Utah, Louisiana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Tennessee main these additions.
In the meantime, the EIA predicts that coal retirements will speed up, with 6%, or 11 GW, of coal-generating capability being faraway from the U.S. electrical energy sector in 2025, and an additional 2%, or 4 GW, leaving the grid in 2026.
Regardless of the uncertainty surrounding the U.S. renewable vitality business at current, solar energy and battery storage are anticipated to contribute a big proportion of the additions to the U.S. grid this yr. Wind energy will even play a serious position in new transmission community additions. Nonetheless, the introduction of tariffs on the import of products from China might drive up the price of batteries, which can contribute to larger spending by utilities and should in the end drive up client prices.
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