U.S. Wind and Solar Generation Milestone Report: EIA Generation Data

Key Takeaways

• Wind and utility-scale solar power generated a record 17% of total U.S. electricity in 2025, up from less than 1% in 2005.
• Combined generation from wind and utility solar reached 760,000 gigawatthours (GWh) in 2025, an increase of 88,000 GWh over 2024.
• Utility-scale solar generation expanded 34% in a single year to reach 296,000 GWh, maintaining continuous annual growth since 2006.
• Small-scale distributed rooftop solar produced 93,000 GWh in 2025, an 11% increase over the previous year.
• When combining utility-scale renewables with small-scale solar, wind and solar accounted for 19% of total net U.S. generation.

A Two-Decade Transformation of American Power Generation

The generation profile of the United States power sector has undergone a fundamental transformation over the last two decades. According to data published in the U.S. Energy Information Administration's Electric Power Monthly, electricity from wind power and utility-scale solar power has increased to 17% of generation in the United States compared to less than 1% in 2005.

In 2025, net generation of wind and solar together accounted for 760,000 gigawatthours (GWh) of electricity, 88,000 GWh more than in 2024. Under official EIA reporting criteria, power plants are classified as utility-scale if they possess at least 1 megawatt (MW) of generating capacity.

This sustained expansion has altered grid dispatch economics across every regional transmission organization. For consumers seeking to understand kW vs kWh in solar power or evaluating how much energy a solar panel produces, these national metrics show the cumulative macro impact of zero-marginal-cost renewable generation.

Solar Power: Continuous Growth Every Year Since 2006

While wind power generated the larger volume of electricity at 464,000 GWh (a 3% increase over 2024), solar photovoltaic technology expanded at an extraordinary pace. In 2025, utility-scale solar power generation totaled 296,000 GWh, 34% more than in 2024.

This rapid expansion represents an unbroken two-decade development streak: electricity generation from utility-scale solar has increased every year since 2006. As manufacturing economies of scale lowered module pricing and tracking hardware matured, solar projects became competitive against conventional thermal resources even in non-traditional solar regions.

Homeowners evaluating how many solar panels to power a house mirror this macroeconomic momentum on their rooftops, driving complementary growth in distributed generation.

The Vital Role of Small-Scale Distributed Solar

In addition to centralized utility arrays, customer-sited rooftop systems represent a substantial and growing portion of the clean energy mix. According to the EIA's Electricity Data Browser, small-scale solar generation, which the agency began estimating in 2014, has also grown, and in 2025 totaled 93,000 GWh, 11% more than in 2024.

Small-scale systems—defined as facilities under 1 MW of capacity, primarily residential and commercial rooftop arrays—account for nearly 24% of all solar energy generated across the nation.

When combining utility-scale and small-scale solar generation with wind, the comprehensive clean generation metric reaches a new milestone: combining utility-scale and small-scale solar generation in 2025 increases the share of wind and solar to 19% of total net generation.

Baseload and Dispatchable Resources

Wind and solar operate as non-dispatchable, intermittent resources, meaning they generate electricity only when environmental conditions permit. Consequently, dispatchable power plants remain essential for maintaining grid frequency and evening ramp support.

Dispatchable sources, such as natural gas, coal, and nuclear power, can operate as base-load generating units, and combined, they accounted for 75% of U.S. utility-scale electricity generation in 2025.

However, as utility battery storage deployments scale alongside wind and solar assets, the combination of renewable energy and energy storage is increasingly assuming daytime balancing and peaking responsibilities. For businesses and households assessing whether solar power is worth it in the US, EIA generation data confirms that renewable power is now a mainstream, reliable component of the national grid.