The story. Nearly nine out of every ten megawatts of new US power capacity installed in 2025 came from renewables — 72.6% from solar and 15.7% from wind, according to FERC data reviewed by the SUN DAY Campaign. Natural gas contributed just 11.4%. Solar has now led all sources in monthly capacity additions for 28 consecutive months.

The bigger picture. The headline number deserves context, because capacity and generation are different things. Capacity measures what a plant could produce at peak output; generation is what it actually delivers over time. Solar panels only produce when the sun shines, so solar now holds 12.2% of total US installed capacity (FERC) but generated just 7% of the country's electricity in 2025 (EIA). Natural gas tells the opposite story — it accounts for a smaller share of new builds but delivered 41% of actual US electricity in 2025 (EIA) because gas plants run on demand. Still, the renewable buildout is moving the needle: US carbon intensity sat at 384 gCO2/kWh in 2024 (Ember), below the global average of 471 and well under China's 555, though still nearly double the EU's 210 gCO2/kWh in 2025 (Ember).

The tension. FERC projects another 86 GW of solar over the next three years while coal shrinks by 41 GW. But the gap between capacity on paper and electrons on the grid means the US fuel mix will shift more slowly than the installation numbers suggest.