EIA: Solar smashes records in 2025 — now topping wind, hydro and coal in key months as renewables surge past 26% of U.S. generation

By SB Staff October 27, 2025

New EIA data reviewed by SUN DAY Campaign: Solar up ~29% in August, wind + solar now 19% of U.S. generation YTD, while fossil and nuclear output stalls

Solar generated nearly one-tenth of all U.S. electricity in August — up from 7.6% a year ago — according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s latest Electric Power Monthly (data through Aug. 31), reviewed by the SUN DAY Campaign.

Utility-scale PV jumped 29.5% year-over-year in August and small-scale PV climbed 10.8%, combining for 24.7% growth month-over-month and nearly 9.5% of all U.S. electricity that month.

Solar now beats hydro — and often wind

Through the first eight months of 2025:

• Solar YTD is up 28.8% and now accounts for 8.9% of total U.S. electricity
• Solar output is now 58% higher than hydropower, and in August produced more than double U.S. hydropower
• In both August and YTD, solar exceeded the combined output of hydro + biomass + geothermal
• Utility-scale solar out-generated wind for the second straight month — by 4% in July and 15% in August
• Including small-scale systems, solar has out-produced wind four months running and by almost 50% in August

Renewables overall now exceed 26% of U.S. generation

Wind still posted modest gains: 10.2% of U.S. electricity YTD, up 2.6% year-over-year. Combined, wind + solar delivered 19.1% of U.S. generation in the first eight months of 2025 — more than coal and more than nuclear over the same period. Nuclear generation slipped 0.7%.

When including hydropower, biomass and geothermal, renewables supplied 26.1% of total U.S. electricity from January through August — second only to natural gas. Natural gas output declined 4.1% during the same period.

Capacity growth is even more lopsided

Between Sept. 2024 and Aug. 2025:

• Utility-scale solar added 31.7 GW; small-scale solar added 5.7 GW
• Battery storage grew 63.9%, adding 13.4 GW — now 50% larger than all U.S. pumped hydro storage
• Wind added 4.8 GW

Planned additions over the next 12 months:

• 34.3 GW utility-scale solar
• 20.2 GW battery storage
• 9.7 GW wind

Meanwhile:

• Gas capacity rose just 3.3 GW
• Nuclear added 46 MW
• Coal capacity fell 4.2 GW
• Petroleum fell 0.7 GW

Net result: Renewables + storage ballooned 55.4 GW in the past year, while fossil + nuclear capacity shrank 1.5 GW.

“The Trump Administration and its Republican supporters in Congress may slow renewable energy growth a bit … but EIA’s data reinforce the conclusion that the transition to solar, wind, other renewables and storage continues, is accelerating, and has become inevitable,” Ken Bossong, Executive Director, SUN DAY Campaign.