Photo voltaic accounted for greater than 72% of US electrical producing capability added in 2025, with one other 16% from wind, in line with belatedly launched information from the Federal Vitality Regulatory Fee (FERC) reviewed by the SUN DAY Marketing campaign.
In terms of new capability additions, photo voltaic has held the lead amongst all power sources for 28 consecutive months. Put in utility-scale photo voltaic capability now exceeds the person capacities of wind, hydropower, and nuclear energy. Additional, FERC expects photo voltaic so as to add one other 86 gigawatts (GW) over the following three years, throughout which period photo voltaic capability may also surpass that of coal.
Photo voltaic was 83% of latest producing capability in December
In its newest month-to-month “Vitality Infrastructure Replace” report (with information by December 31, 2025), FERC says 17 “items” of photo voltaic totaling 993 megawatts (MW) had been positioned into service in December, accounting for 83.2% of all new producing capability added throughout the month.
The 710 utility-scale (>1 MW) photo voltaic items added throughout 2025 whole 26,556 MW and accounted for 72.6% of the whole new capability positioned into service by all sources.
Photo voltaic has now been the most important supply of latest producing capability added every month for 28 months straight, from September 2023 to December 2025. Throughout that interval, whole utility-scale photo voltaic capability grew from 91.82 GW to 164.53 GW. No different power supply added something near that quantity of latest capability. Wind, for instance, expanded by 13.40 GW, whereas pure fuel’s web enhance was simply 6.83 GW.
As a consequence, the put in producing capability of utility-scale photo voltaic is now 164.5 GW, or 12.2% of the whole, and has surpassed that of wind (161.1 GW, or 11.9%), nuclear energy (104.39 GW, or 7.7%), and hydropower (102.09 GW, or 7.5%).
Wind capability additions in 2025 beat pure fuel
In 2025, new wind offered 5,763 MW of capability additions – a rise of 26% in comparison with 2024 and greater than the brand new capability offered by pure fuel (4,179 MW). Wind accounted for 15.7% of all new capability added throughout 2025.
Renewables had been 88% of latest capability added in 2025
In 2025, wind and photo voltaic (joined by 4 MW of hydropower and 6 MW of biomass) accounted for 88.4% of all new producing capability, whereas pure fuel added simply 11.4%. The stability of web capability additions got here from oil (66 MW) and waste warmth (17 MW).
Photo voltaic + wind are 1 / 4 of US producing capability
Taken collectively, wind and photo voltaic account for twenty-four.1% of the US whole put in utility-scale producing capability.
Furthermore, greater than one-fourth of US photo voltaic capability is in small-scale methods (e.g., rooftop) that aren’t mirrored in FERC’s information. Together with that further photo voltaic capability would carry the share offered by photo voltaic + wind to greater than 25% of the US whole.
With hydropower (7.5%), biomass (1.1%), and geothermal (0.3%) included, renewables at present declare a 33.0% share of whole US utility-scale producing capability. If small-scale photo voltaic capability is included, renewables now account for greater than one-third of whole US producing capability.
Photo voltaic continues to be on observe to change into No. 2
FERC experiences that web “excessive chance” web additions of photo voltaic over the following three years (January 2026 to December 2028) whole 86,126 MW – an quantity greater than 4 occasions the forecast web “excessive chance” additions for wind (19,821 MW), the second quickest rising useful resource. Additional, the common annual mixed progress from photo voltaic and wind over the following three years (35,316 MW per yr) would intently match that over the past two years (35,382 MW per yr), suggesting no slowdown regardless of the hostile insurance policies of the Trump administration.
FERC additionally foresees web progress for hydropower (554 MW) and geothermal (102 MW) however a lower of 116 MW in biomass capability.
In the meantime, pure fuel capability would broaden by far much less – 8,154 MW, and nuclear energy would add simply 335 MW, whereas coal is projected to contract by a large 40,828 MW, and oil is forecast to fall by 1,590 MW.
Taken collectively, the online new “excessive chance” web utility-scale capability additions by all renewable power sources over the following three years – the Trump administration’s remaining time in workplace – would whole 106,487 MW. Then again, the put in capability of fossil fuels and nuclear energy mixed would shrink by 33,929 MW.
Ought to FERC’s three-year forecast materialize, by January 1, 2029, utility-scale photo voltaic would account for 17.6% of put in US producing capability, greater than some other supply moreover pure fuel (40.6%). Additional, the capability of the combo of all utility-scale renewable power sources could be nearly 39%. Inclusion of small-scale photo voltaic, assuming it retains its 25% share of all photo voltaic, might push photo voltaic’s share to over 20% and that of all renewables to over 40%, whereas pure fuel’s share would drop under 39%.
The truth is, the numbers for renewables may very well be considerably greater.
FERC notes that “all additions” (web) for utility-scale photo voltaic over the following three years may very well be as excessive as 240,152 MW, whereas these for wind might whole 64,669 MW. Hydro’s web additions might attain 9,513 MW, whereas geothermal and biomass might enhance by 575 MW and 44 MW, respectively. Such progress from renewable sources would considerably exceed that of pure fuel (36,628 MW).
“FERC’s information verify that very sturdy progress in electrical technology by photo voltaic and wind dominated the primary yr of the Trump administration,” famous the SUN DAY Marketing campaign’s government director, Ken Bossong. “Equally necessary, the pattern traces are on observe to proceed throughout the subsequent three years, however efforts by the White Home to reverse course.”
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