Solar and wind energy accounted for 93% of new U.S. electricity capacity additions in November 2025, making solar the leading new source of electricity for 27 consecutive months, according to a review of FERC data by the SUN DAY Campaign. Of that percentage, solar energy made up 72% of new generation capacity, both in November and for 2025.
According to FERCs “Update energy infrastructurereport for November, 2,879 GW of solar started in November. Thirteen of those projects were 100 MW or larger, including the 484.6 MW Parliament Solar Project and the 256.3 MW Stampede Solar & Storage Expansion Project, both of which were built in Texas.
As of November 2024, 27,668 GW of solar energy had been activated, compared to 25,467 GW through November last year. Over the past 27 months, total utility-scale solar capacity has grown from 91.82 GW to 163.44 GW. Wind added 13.20 GW and natural gas 6.83 GW in the same period.
Utility-scale solar is now nearly one-eighth (12.09%) of the country’s total electricity generation capacity. Solar energy leads to sustainable energy production on a utility scale. Natural gas and coal are the only energy sources that produce more power than solar energy, but renewable energy is on track to surpass coal’s capacity before the end of 2026.
Wind and solar energy together accounted for almost 92.9% of capacity additions in November. They now make up almost a quarter (24.0%) of the country’s installed utility-scale generation capacity.
In addition, more than 25% of American solar capacity consists of small-scale (rooftop) systems, which are not reflected in the FERC data. Including that extra solar capacity, the share of solar and wind energy would be more than a quarter of the national total.
Combined with hydropower (7.55%), biomass (1.05%), and geothermal energy (0.31%), renewables currently claim a 32.9% share of total U.S. utility-scale generation capacity. Including small-scale solar capacity, renewables now make up more than a third of total U.S. generating capacity.
FERC expects solar to grow an additional 86.13 GW between December 2025 and November 2028, which is more than four times the expected additions for wind and more than eight times the expected additions for natural gas.
Despite President Donald Trump’s move away from fossil fuels, renewables are still expected to be responsible for a predicted 106,492 GW of new electricity over the remainder of his term – with solar and wind power potentially claiming 105,951 GW of that amount. If this happens, solar energy would account for 17.2% of the country’s generating capacity.
“Combined with recent court decisions lifting the ‘pauses’ on offshore wind construction, the continued dominance of solar and wind energy should be a clear wake-up call for the Trump administration,” said Ken Bossong, executive director of the SUN DAY Campaign. “Renewable energy is the future and will not be held back by the short-sighted policies coming from the White House.”
News item from the SUN DAY campaign
