Photo voltaic continues to dominate new capability additions and has held the lead amongst all vitality sources for 26 consecutive months. Consequently, put in utility-scale photo voltaic capability now exceeds wind capability for the primary time, in line with knowledge launched by the Federal Power Regulatory Fee (FERC) and reviewed by the SUN DAY Marketing campaign.
Photo voltaic accounted for 72% of US electrical producing capability added throughout the first 10 months of 2025. Additional, FERC foresees photo voltaic including one other 90 gigawatts (GW) over the following three years, by which period photo voltaic capability will exceed both nuclear energy or coal.
Photo voltaic was 60% of recent producing capability in October
In its newest month-to-month “Power Infrastructure Replace” report launched (three weeks late) on January 20 (with knowledge by way of October 31, 2025), FERC says 66 “models” of photo voltaic totaling 1,082 megawatts (MW) have been positioned into service in October, accounting for 59.8% of all new producing capability added throughout the month. Pure fuel (727 MW) plus 1 MW of recent oil capability offered the stability.
The 649 utility-scale (>1 MW) photo voltaic models added throughout the first 10 months of 2025 complete 22,457 MW – barely lower than the 22,618 MW added throughout the identical interval in 2024 – and accounted for 72.0% of the entire new capability positioned into service by all sources.
Photo voltaic has now been the biggest supply of recent producing capability added every month for 26 months straight, from September 2023 to October 2025. Throughout that interval, complete utility-scale photo voltaic capability grew from 91.82 GW to 160.56 GW. No different vitality supply added something near that quantity of recent capability. Wind, for instance, expanded by 12.39 GW whereas pure fuel’ web improve was simply 6.55 GW.
Consequently, for the primary time, the put in producing capability of utility-scale photo voltaic has now surpassed that of wind (160.09 GW).
Wind capability additions beat pure fuel
Between January and October, new wind offered 4,746 MW of capability additions – a rise of 55% year-over-year and greater than the brand new capability offered by pure fuel (3,896 MW). Wind thus accounted for 15.2% of all new capability added throughout the first 10 months of 2025.
Yr-to-date (YTD), wind and photo voltaic (joined by 4 MW of hydropower and 6 MW of biomass) accounted for 87.2% of all new producing capability whereas pure fuel added simply 12.4%. The stability of web capability additions got here from oil (66 MW) and waste warmth (17 MW).
Photo voltaic + wind make up almost 25% of US producing capability
Wind and photo voltaic collectively make up 23.79% of the US’s complete accessible put in utility-scale producing capability.
Furthermore, greater than 25% of US photo voltaic capability is in small-scale techniques (e.g., rooftop) that aren’t mirrored in FERC’s knowledge. Together with that further photo voltaic capability would deliver the share offered by photo voltaic and wind to greater than 1 / 4 of the US complete.
With hydropower (7.57%), biomass (1.05%), and geothermal (0.31%) included, renewables at the moment account for 32.72% of complete US utility-scale producing capability. If small-scale photo voltaic capability is included, renewables now account for greater than one-third of complete US producing capability.
FERC’s three-year forecast
FERC experiences that web “excessive chance” web additions of photo voltaic between November 2025 and October 2028 complete 89,720 MW – an quantity greater than 4 occasions the forecast web “excessive chance” additions for wind (19,660 MW), the second-fastest rising useful resource.
FERC additionally foresees web development for hydropower (555 MW) and geothermal (92 MW), however a lower of 124 MW in biomass capability.
In the meantime, pure fuel capability would broaden by 8,983 MW, and nuclear energy would add simply 335 MW, whereas coal and oil are projected to contract by 19,741 MW and 1,363 MW, respectively.
Taken collectively, the online new “excessive chance” web utility-scale capability additions by all renewable vitality sources over the following three years – that’s, the Trump administration’s remaining time in workplace – would complete 109,903 MW. Alternatively, the put in capability of fossil fuels and nuclear energy mixed would shrink by 11,786 MW.
Ought to FERC’s three-year forecast materialize, by mid-fall 2028, utility-scale photo voltaic would account for 17.3% of put in U.S. producing capability – greater than some other supply in addition to pure fuel (40.1%). Additional, the capability of the combination of all utility-scale renewable vitality sources would exceed 38%. Inclusion of small-scale photo voltaic – assuming it retains its 25% share of all photo voltaic – may push photo voltaic’s share to over 20% and that of all renewables to over 41%, whereas pure fuel’s share would drop to about 38%.
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 232,487 MW, whereas these for wind may complete 65,658 MW. Hydro’s web additions may attain 9,932 MW, whereas geothermal and biomass may improve by 202 MW and 34 MW, respectively. Such development from renewable sources would considerably exceed that of pure fuel (30,508 MW).
Ken Bossong, govt director of the SUN DAY Marketing campaign, stated, “It has now been a full 12 months since Trump launched his assault on renewable vitality with a string of anti-solar and anti-wind govt orders. And whereas they might have slowed progress, the financial and environmental advantages of renewable vitality sources proceed to drive their dramatic development.”
If you happen to’re seeking to change your outdated HVAC gear, it’s all the time a good suggestion to get quotes from just a few installers. To ensure you’re discovering a trusted, dependable HVAC installer close to you that gives aggressive pricing on warmth pumps, try EnergySage. EnergySage is a free service that makes it simple so that you can get a warmth pump. They’ve pre-vetted warmth pump installers competing for your enterprise, making certain you get top quality options. Plus, it’s free to make use of!
Your personalised warmth pump quotes are simple to match on-line and also you’ll get entry to unbiased Power Advisors that will help you each step of the way in which. Get began right here. – *advert
FTC: We use earnings incomes auto affiliate hyperlinks. Extra.
