Solar surpasses wind as largest renewable source
Solar and storage accounted for 72 percent of new electrical generating capacity on the U.S. grid for the first 10 months of 2025, according to a review of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) data. Solar photovoltaics (PV) has held this position for 26 months in a row and has now edged out wind power as the largest source of renewable energy capacity on the U.S. grid.
Solar, wind, hydropower and biomass accounted for 87.2 percent of all new generating capacity while natural gas added 12.4 percent, with the remainder being oil and waste heat. Taken together, wind and solar constitute nearly one-fourth (23.79 percent) of the United States' total available installed utility-scale generating capacity. More than 25 percent of U.S. solar capacity is in the form of small-scale (rooftop) systems that are not reflected in FERC's data.
Based on FERC estimations, utility-scale solar is slated to account for 17.3 percent of installed U.S. generating capacity alone in three years, placing it in second place behind natural gas with an estimated 40.1 percent capacity. Combining all estimated renewable energy capacity, utility scale renewables could exceed 38 percent by 2029.
States actively pursued solar policies in 2025
The NC Clean Energy Technology Center (NCCETC) published a report finding that 49 states, plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, had taken distributed solar policy actions during 2025. The only state with no solar policies was Tennessee.
The NCCETC released its 2025 annual review providing insights on state regulatory and legislative discussions and actions on distributed solar policy. The most common policy changes related to net metering, community solar and residential fixed charge increases. The most active states were Colorado, Illinois, Connecticut, Virginia, Maine and New Jersey.
The report identifies 10 solar policy trends, including state responses to waning federal tax credits, consolidating billing in community solar programs and changes to net metering policies.
Solar wins speed to generation contest
The U.S. solar industry's federal incentive ecosystem has been drastically reshaped by the Trump administration. With most renewable energy subsidies canceled or phased out, the solar industry has shifted its messaging to tout solar's speed to the grid compared to other energy sources, specifically natural gas.
As the demand for new power-hungry AI data centers rises, so does the need for quick-to-grid generation sources. The number of announced gas projects has grown over the last year, but it still takes around five years to get a new turbine delivered. Utility-scale solar projects can be built much faster, but there are still delays in the interconnection process. As it stands today, solar projects consistently beat new gas generation projects to the grid, despite these interconnection delays.
As mentioned, the lead time to get a new large-scale gas turbine is five or more years if a developer wishes to obtain a gas turbine by 2030, they're probably too late in the process, according to development experts. Even without procurement issues, a gas turbine project development takes between two to four years, and construction takes another one to two years.
By comparison, the average procurement and construction time for a large solar development is 12 to 18 months.
While solar project timelines are shortening, U.S. federal policy that favors gas turbines is resulting in lengthening lead times as demand for turbines increase while suppliers struggle to increase capacity.
DOE cancels $83 billion in clean energy loans
The Trump administration's war on renewable energy continues. The Department of Energy (DOE) announced last Thursday that it is canceling $83.6 billion of Biden-era loans slated for clean energy projects. This is the latest action the Trump administration has taken to reprioritize federal support for fossil fuel sources away from renewable energy.
Of the DOE affected loans, $9.5 billion originally issued for solar and wind projects is being diverted to natural gas and nuclear projects.
These loans were issued by the DOE's Loan Programs Office under the Biden administration, which has since been renamed the Office of Energy Dominance Financing (EDF). The Trump administration has canceled $29.9 billion of the $83.6 billion issued to clean energy projects, and is working to, in their words, "de-obligate" the remainder.
The EDF has allocated $289 billion for its new areas of priority in energy and infrastructure, which includes investing in fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas, geothermal and nuclear power as well as mineral extraction.
