The U.S. solar industry installed 11.7 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity in the third quarter of 2025, marking the sector’s third-largest quarter on record and pushing total installations this year past 30 GW, according to the U.S. Solar Market Insight Q4 2025 report released by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie.
Despite federal actions targeting clean energy, solar and storage accounted for 85% of all new power added to the grid during the first nine months of the Trump Administration. The report highlighted that 73% of this year’s solar capacity was installed in states won by President Trump, including eight of the top 10 states for new installations: Texas, Indiana, Florida, Arizona, Ohio, Utah, Kentucky, and Arkansas. Utah entered the top 10 this quarter with over 1 GW of utility-scale projects coming online.
SEIA President and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper noted, “This record-setting quarter for solar deployment shows that the market is continuing to turn to solar to meet rising demand. But unless the administration reverses course, the future of clean, affordable, and reliable solar and storage will be frozen by uncertainty.”
Federal measures, including a July memo from the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), have created business uncertainty by impeding utility-scale solar and storage projects. The report stated that in the absence of clarity on permitting timelines and project approvals, forecasts for utility-scale solar deployment through 2030 remain largely unchanged from last quarter.
On the manufacturing front, two new solar module facilities in Louisiana and South Carolina, totaling 4.7 GW, have come online this year. With the opening of a wafer facility in Michigan in Q3, the U.S. can now produce all major components of the solar module supply chain.
Michelle Davis, head of solar research at Wood Mackenzie and lead author of the report, said, “We expect 250 GW of solar to be installed from 2025 to 2030, but the industry has more potential. Rising power demand nationwide presents significant upside if existing constraints are alleviated.”
The report also flagged that more than 73 GW of solar projects have permits pending and remain vulnerable to politically motivated delays or cancellations.
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