Photo voltaic and wind accounted for nearly 98% of latest electrical producing capability added to the U.S. grid within the first quarter of 2025 and had been the one sources of latest capability in March. The SUN DAY Marketing campaign reviewed data from FERC to search out that March 2025 was the nineteenth consecutive month the place photo voltaic was the most important supply of latest capability.
Credit score: APA Photo voltaic
In its newest month-to-month “Energy Infrastructure Update” report, FERC reported 31 “models” of photo voltaic totaling 446 MW had been positioned into service in March together with one unit of wind — the 223.9-MW Shamrock Wind & Storage Mission in Crockett County, Texas. Mixed, they accounted for 100% of all new producing capability added throughout the month.
And for the primary three months of the yr, the mixture of photo voltaic and wind (7,076 MW) was 97.8% of latest capability whereas pure gasoline (147 MW) offered simply 2.0%, and one other 0.2% got here from oil (11 MW).
Photo voltaic accounted for two-thirds (66.6%) of all new producing capability positioned into service in March. For the primary quarter, photo voltaic accounted for 72.3% of latest capability added. Photo voltaic has now been the most important supply of latest producing capability added every month for 19 consecutive months: September 2023 by March 2025.
New wind accounted for the remaining third (33.4%) of capability additions in March and offered over one-fourth (25.5%) of latest additions for the quarter.
The put in capacities of photo voltaic (10.7%) and wind (11.8%) are actually every greater than one-tenth of the nation’s whole. Taken collectively, they represent virtually one-fourth (22.5%) of the nation’s whole accessible put in utility-scale producing capability.
Furthermore, roughly 30% of U.S. photo voltaic capability is within the type of small-scale (rooftop) methods that isn’t mirrored in FERC’s knowledge. Together with that extra photo voltaic capability would convey the share offered by photo voltaic and wind to greater than one-quarter of the nation’s whole.
With the inclusion of hydropower (7.7%), biomass (1.1%) and geothermal (0.3%), renewables presently declare a 31.5% share of whole U.S. utility-scale producing capability. If small-scale photo voltaic capability is included, renewables are actually about one-third of whole U.S. producing capability.
For perspective, a yr earlier, the combination of utility-scale renewables accounted for 29.4% of whole put in producing capability, together with photo voltaic (8.3%) and wind (11.8%). 5 years in the past, it was 22.7%; photo voltaic was 3.8% and wind was 9.0%. Ten years in the past, it was 16.9% with wind at 5.7% and photo voltaic at 1.0%. Thus, over the previous decade, wind’s share of U.S. producing capability has greater than doubled whereas that of photo voltaic has elevated by greater than ten-fold.
“However the Trump Administration’s anti-renewable vitality efforts throughout its first 100+ days, the robust development of photo voltaic and wind continues,” famous the SUN DAY Marketing campaign’s government director Ken Bossong. “And FERC’s newest knowledge and forecasts counsel this is not going to change within the near-term.”
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