The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has forecast that the US will add 33.3GW of utility-scale solar PV in 2025.
The majority of the additions are forecast to come in the second half of the year. The EIA forecasts 21.3GW of new solar PV additions in H2 2025, while energy storage additions are forecast to reach 12.4GW in H2 2025, for a total of 18.3GW over the year.
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This is a slight increase from the forecast the EIA made earlier in the year, when it forecast 32.5GW of new utility-scale solar this year. In the case of battery storage, the forecast does not change much from February, when the EIA forecast 18.2GW.
Solar PV is forecast to account for more than half of all planned new electricity capacity this year. A total of 64GW new utility-scale generation is expected in 2025, comprising solar, wind, natural gas and battery storage capacity.
If all these capacities end up online by the end of the year, it would be an annual record for US power capacity additions. The previous record was set in 2002, when the US added 58GW to the grid, 57GW of which came from natural gas.
Solar PV and battery storage could set new capacity records in 2025, based on EIA’s forecast. The previous solar record was set last year, with 30GW.
According to the EIA, Texas drove much of the growth of solar and storage in 2025. So far this year, the state represented 27% of all solar PV additions (3.2GW) and is forecast to have a further 9.7GW of utility-scale solar online in H2 2025.
Among the projects brought online in Texas during the first half of 2025 is the 600MW Hornet Solar project from renewables developer Vesper Energy. Located in Swisher County, the project is one of the largest single-phase PV projects in the US, with more than 1.36 million solar modules installed. Other notable projects that have been commissioned earlier in the year in Texas are a 300MW PV plant from developer Invenergy in February and three Lightsource bp projects, one with an installed capacity of 187MW in January and a 288MW portfolio in February.
In the case of energy storage, the EIA forecasts 7GW of capacity additions to be installed in Texas for 2025, with most of the capacity reaching commercial operations in H2 2025.
Developers have added 12GW of new utility-scale solar capacity across the US, during the first half of the year. This is in par with the numbers registered during the same period a year ago.
Solar PV added the most utility-scale capacity in the US between January and June. It was followed by battery storage with 5.9GW.
