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2025 Renewable Energy Milestones - In 2025, clean energy became the leading source of new power in the U.S., with record solar and battery additions and fossil fuels falling below half of generation. But the projects completed this year were built under yesterday’s rules. As policy uncertainty grows and demand accelerates, the real test begins in 2026.
2025 proved something important. Clean energy is no longer catching up. It is leading.
The U.S. added about 33 GW of new solar this year, making up half of all new electric capacity. Texas led the country with 12-13 GW of new solar on its own. Battery storage kept scaling fast. About 14 GW came online this year, with 70% of all U.S. battery capacity located in Texas and California.
In March, clean electricity hit 50.8% of U.S. generation for the first time. Fossil fuels fell below half. California burned 10 billion fewer kilowatt hours of natural gas compared to 2020. Global renewable energy investment climbed to 386 billion dollars in the first half of the year, up 10% year-over-year. Renewables became the largest source of electricity in the world.
Puerto Rico continued to grow its distributed energy system this year, adding roughly 300–400 MW of new rooftop solar and expanding to about 185,000 home batteries in total. Texas, which passed California in utility-scale solar back in 2024, widened its lead again this year with another strong buildout. The momentum came from states, developers, and communities that kept moving forward regardless of federal uncertainty.
But here's what those numbers don't tell you: every project that came online this year started years ago. Before anyone knew, the IRA would be under threat. Before tariffs became unpredictable. Before residential solar tax credits were set to expire at the end of this year.
The pipeline that was completed in 2025 was constructed under a different set of rules. However, the projects that are beginning now are stepping into a landscape full of uncertainties. Federal incentives are in flux and interconnection queues stretch for years. Developers are grappling with how to make the numbers work while the policy environment continues to shift around them.
2026 won't run on momentum alone. It'll run on whether the grid can expand as fast as demand requires, whether policy holds or fractures, and whether capital still flows when the risk premium goes up. And all of this doesn’t include the datacenter and AI boom.
The industry proved it can build at scale. The question is whether it'll be allowed to keep building.
What went wrong in 2025 that still isn’t fixed? And what’s the big risk nobody’s thinking about for 2026?