Recently, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicted that by 2025, utility-scale solar capacity will reach 32.5GW, energy storage capacity will slightly exceed 18GW, wind power is expected to add 7.7GW, and fossil fuel natural gas capacity will increase by 4.4GW.
According to the EIA’s latest preliminary monthly generator inventory report (EIA-860M), total new capacity additions in 2025 will reach approximately 63GW, marking the highest annual capacity addition in U.S. history. In comparison, EIA data shows that 48.6GW of utility-scale capacity was deployed in 2024, the highest total since 2002, when about 60GW of new capacity was connected to the grid.
Solar energy is projected to account for 51.5% of all new capacity additions in 2025. Texas will lead with 11.6GW of new solar capacity, making up nearly 36% of the total solar additions. California follows with 2.9GW, while five other states—Indiana, Arizona, Michigan, Florida, and New York—are each expected to deploy over 1GW of capacity.
Energy storage capacity is expected to grow significantly, adding 18.2GW. While the report does not provide details on storage duration, the two largest battery markets, California and Texas, typically deploy systems with four-hour and two-and-a-half-hour storage capacities, respectively.
Texas is expected to add 6.7GW of new storage, followed by California with 4.3GW and Arizona with 3.6GW. These three states will account for more than 80% of all new battery storage capacity.
The two largest battery projects planned for 2025 each have a capacity of 500MW. One is located in Kern County, California, and will be co-located with a 500MW solar power plant—the largest power plant planned for the year. The second project, in Wharton County, Texas, will be paired with a 451.6MW solar facility, making it the second-largest solar plant scheduled for 2025.
EIA’s Short-Term Energy Outlook shows that small-scale solar (residential, commercial, and industrial) will add 7GW of capacity, bringing total distributed solar capacity to 60.6GW by the end of 2025. When combined with the 32.5GW AC (42GW DC) of utility-scale capacity, total solar module deployment this year could approach 50GW.
Initially, the EIA projected that the U.S. would deploy over 50GW of solar capacity in 2024, with its November capacity report maintaining that estimate. However, the latest data indicates that the EIA has revised its 2024 capacity estimate downward by about 7GW. This revision aligns with an anticipated surge in deployments in January 2025.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates that U.S. solar installations in 2024 will reach nearly 50GW.
