SUN DAY CAMPAIGN
8606 Greenwood Avenue, Suite #2; Takoma Park, MD 20912-6656
Brief News Update & Analysis
UTILITY-SCALE SOLAR GENERATING CAPACITY
SURPASSES WIND FOR THE FIRST TIME
FOR 26 MONTHS STRAIGHT, SOLAR HAS PROVIDED
MORE NEW GENERATING CAPACITY
THAN ANY OTHER ENERGY SOURCE
OVER THE NEXT THREE YEARS,
SOLAR PROJECTED TO ADD ANOTHER 90-GW
For Release: Wednesday, January 21, 2026
Contact: Ken Bossong, 301-588-4741
Washington DC – A review by the SUN DAY Campaign of data belatedly released by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) reveals that solar accounted for 72% of U.S. electrical generating capacity added during the first ten months of 2025. Solar continues to dominate new capacity additions and has held the lead among all energy sources for 26 consecutive months. As a consequence, for the first time, installed utility-scale solar capacity now exceeds that of wind. Further, FERC foresees solar adding another 90 gigawatts (GW) over the next three years by which time solar capacity will be greater than that of either nuclear power or coal.
Solar was 60% of new generating capacity in October and 72% year-to-date:
In its latest monthly “Energy Infrastructure Update” report (with data through October 31, 2025), FERC says 66 “units” of solar totaling 1,082 megawatts (MW) were placed into service in October, accounting for 59.8% of all new generating capacity added during the month. Natural gas provided the balance (727-MW) plus 1-MW of new oil capacity.
The newest facilities include the 153.0-MW Felina Project in El Paso, TX; the 150.0-MW Ratts 1 Solar Project in Pike County, IN; and the 145-MW Axial Basin Solar Project in Moffat County, CO.
The 649 units of utility-scale (i.e., >1-MW) solar added during the first ten months of 2025 total 22,457-MW - slightly less than the 22,618-MW added during the same period in 2024 - and were 72.0% of the total new capacity placed into service by all sources.
Solar has now been the largest source of new generating capacity added each month for 26 months straight: September 2023 - October 2025. During that period, total utility-scale solar capacity grew from 91.82-GW to 160.56-GW. No other energy source added anything close to that amount of new capacity. Wind, for example, expanded by 12.39-GW while natural gas’ net increase was just 6.55-GW. [1]
As a consequence, for the first time ever, the installed generating capacity of utility-scale solar has now surpassed that of wind (160.09-GW).
Wind capacity additions through October exceed those of natural gas:
Between January and October, new wind provided 4,746-MW of capacity additions – an increase of 55% compared to a year earlier and more than the new capacity provided by natural gas (3,896-MW). Wind thus accounted for 15.2% of all new capacity added during the first ten months of 2025.
Renewables were more than 87% of new capacity added year-to-date:
Year-to-date (YTD), wind and solar (joined by 4-MW of hydropower and 6-MW of biomass) accounted for 87.2% of all new generating capacity while natural gas added just 12.4%. The balance of net capacity additions came from oil (66-MW) and waste heat (17-MW).
Solar + wind are a quarter of U.S. generating capacity; all renewables combined are over a third:
Taken together, wind and solar constitute nearly one-fourth (23.79%) of the U.S.’s total available installed utility-scale generating capacity.
Moreover, more than 25% of U.S. solar capacity is in the form of small-scale (e.g., rooftop) systems that are not reflected in FERC’s data. [2] Including that additional solar capacity would bring the share provided by solar + wind to more than a quarter of the nation’s total.
With the inclusion of hydropower (7.57%), biomass (1.05%) and geothermal (0.31%), renewables currently claim a 32.72% share of total U.S. utility-scale generating capacity. If small-scale solar capacity is included, renewables are now more than one-third of total U.S. generating capacity.
Solar is on track to become the second largest source of U.S. generating capacity:
FERC reports that net “high probability” net additions of solar between November 2025 and October 2028 total 89,720-MW – an amount more than four times the forecast net “high probability” additions for wind (19,660-MW), the second fastest growing resource.
FERC also foresees net growth for hydropower (555-MW) and geothermal (92-MW) but a decrease of 124-MW in biomass capacity.
Meanwhile, natural gas capacity would expand by 8,983-MW and nuclear power would add just 335-MW, while coal and oil are projected to contract by 19,741-MW and 1,363-MW respectively.
Taken together, the net new “high probability” net utility-scale capacity additions by all renewable energy sources over the next three years - i.e., the Trump Administration’s remaining time in office - would total 109,903-MW. On the other hand, the installed capacity of fossil fuels and nuclear power combined would shrink by 11,786-MW.
Should FERC’s three-year forecast materialize, by mid-fall 2028, utility-scale solar would account for 17.3% of installed U.S. generating capacity - more than any other source besides natural gas (40.1%). Further, the capacity of the mix of all utility-scale renewable energy sources would exceed 38%. Inclusion of small-scale solar - assuming it retains its 25% share of all solar - could push solar’s share to over 20% and that of all renewables to over 41% while that of natural gas would drop to about 38%.
In fact, the numbers for renewables could be significantly higher.
FERC notes that “all additions” (net) for utility-scale solar over the next three years could be as high as 232,487-MW while those for wind could total 65,658-MW. Hydro’s net additions could reach 9,932-MW while geothermal and biomass could increase by 202-MW and 34-MW respectively. Such growth by renewable sources would significantly exceed that of natural gas (30,508-MW).
"It has now been a full year since Trump launched his assault on renewable energy with a string of anti-solar and anti-wind executive orders," noted the SUN DAY Campaign's executive director Ken Bossong. "And while they may have slowed progress, the economic and environmental benefits of renewable energy sources continue to drive their dramatic growth."
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Source:
For the information cited in this update, see the tables entitled "New Generation In-Service (New Build and Expansion)," "Total Available Installed Generating Capacity," and "Generation Capacity Additions and Retirements."
FERC notes: “Data derived from Velocity Suite, Hidachi Energy, and Yes Energy. The data may be subject to update.”
Notes:
[1] Generating capacity is not the same as actual generation. Fossil fuels and nuclear power usually have higher "capacity factors" than do wind and solar. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports capacity factors in calendar year 2024 for nuclear power, combined-cycle natural gas plants and coal were 92.3%, 59.7%, and 42.6% respectively while those for wind and utility-scale solar PV were 34.3% and 23.4%. See Tables 6.07.A and 6.07.B in EIA's most recent "Electric Power Monthly" report.
[2] While FERC does not provide capacity data for small-scale solar, the EIA does. In its latest “Electric Power Monthly” report issued on December 23, 2025, EIA reported that as of October 31, 2025, installed solar capacity totaled 200,995.5-MW of which 58,065.8-MW (i.e., 28.9%) was provided by small-scale solar (estimated). See table 6.1 at https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.php?t=table_6_01
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The SUN DAY Campaign is a non-profit research and educational organization founded in 1992 to support a rapid transition to 100% reliance on sustainable energy technologies as a cost-effective alternative to nuclear power and fossil fuels and as a solution to climate change.
