The United States added 7.4 GW of clean electricity in the first quarter of 2025, with solar and energy storage leading the way
The United States added 7.4 GW of clean electricity in the first quarter of 2025, with solar and energy storage leading the way
According to a report by the American Clean Power Association (ACP), the United States installed a record 1.6 GW of grid-scale energy storage in the first quarter of 2025.
According to the latest ACP report, the installed capacity of utility-scale solar, wind and energy storage in the United States in the first quarter of 2025 was 7.4 GW, second only to the record 8.1 GW in the first quarter of 2024.
Solar energy ranked first in clean energy installed capacity, with 4.4 GW of new installed capacity in the first quarter, followed by energy storage, setting a quarterly record of 1.6 GW, and wind energy at 1.3 GW.
The 4.4 GW of new solar capacity added this quarter is 30% less than the record-breaking same period in 2024. Florida led the way in Q1 2025 installations, adding 894 MW, or just over 20% of all new grid-scale solar capacity added in the quarter.
The 435 MW Dunns Bridge Solar Phase II project in Starke County, Indiana, owned by Northern Indiana Public Service Company and developed by NextEra Energy Resources, was the largest solar project to enter commercial operation this quarter. The project is equipped with a 56 MW/225 MWh battery energy storage system and provides power to NIPSCO customers in the northern part of the state.
Grid-scale battery energy storage is experiencing an installation boom, with total capacity increasing 65% year-over-year, the report said.
The two largest battery energy storage projects to come online in the first quarter were NextEra Energy Resources' Silver State South energy storage project in Nevada and AES Indiana's Pike County energy storage project in Indiana. ACP said both projects have a capacity of 200 MW and are designed to last four hours.
To date, the United States has a total of 156 GW of grid-scale wind power, 134 GW of utility-scale solar and 30.6 GW/83 GWh of battery energy storage. ACP said the United States currently has a total of 321 GW of clean energy generation capacity in operation, which can power 80 million homes.
The clean energy project pipeline is expected to continue to grow in the future. There are more than 184 GW of solar, wind and storage projects under development, up 12% year-on-year. ACP said the steady growth of the project pipeline in recent years is mainly due to battery storage and solar, which have increased by 35 GW and 21 GW respectively since the first quarter of 2022.
"Clean electricity is ready. With unprecedented growth in electricity demand, we must send a consistent investment signal across the energy sector," said Jason Grumet, CEO of ACP. "We have the technology, investment capital and workforce to build more than $300 billion in clean energy projects. But the biggest threat to a reliable energy system is an unreliable political system."
ACP said the industry has grown particularly strongly in Republican states, where domestic manufacturing and energy production have created nearly 650,000 direct and indirect jobs and generated $3.4 billion in taxes and revenue for landowners in rural communities each year.
But the Republican-led House of Representatives passed a budget reconciliation bill that the Solar Energy Industries Association denounced as "unworkable legislation."
Uncertainty about the future of tax credits has led to the cancellation of about $14 billion in clean energy projects and plants in 2025 alone.
Among other changes, the proposed "Big, Beautiful Act" would eliminate the clean energy investment tax credit and production tax credit five years early, in 2028, and would then go to the Senate for a vote.