The latest “Electric Power Monthly” report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows that solar grew by 29.9% in September 2025 compared to one year earlier, and provided 9.7% of the nation’s electrical output during the month, up from 7.6% in 2024.
Wheatridge Solar, Wind and Battery Energy Center in Lexington, Oregon on May 16, 2022.
Utility-scale solar expanded by 35.8% while that from small-scale systems rose by 11.2% during the first nine months of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024. The combination of utility-scale and small-scale solar increased by almost one-third (29.0%) and produced a bit over 9% (utility-scale: 6.85%; small-scale: 2.16%) of total U.S. electrical generation for January-September — up from 7.2% a year earlier. This is according to a review of the data by the SUN DAY Campaign.
For the third consecutive month, utility-scale solar generated more electricity than the nation’s wind farms — by 4% in July, by 15% in August, and by 9% in September. Including residential systems, solar has out-produced wind five months in a row and by over 40% during September.
Similarly, solar-generated electricity year-to-date (YTD) easily surpassed — by almost 65% — the output of the nation’s hydropower plants (5.5% of total generation). In September alone, solar-generated electricity more than doubled the output of the nation’s hydropower plants. In fact, in both September and YTD, solar produced more electricity than hydropower, biomass and geothermal combined.
During the first nine months of 2025, electrical generation by wind plus utility-scale and small-scale solar provided 18.8% of the U.S. total, up from 17.1% during the first three-quarters of 2024. Further, the combination of wind and solar provided 15.1% more electricity than did coal during the first nine months of this year, and 9.8% more than the nation’s nuclear power plants. In fact, as solar and wind expanded, nuclear-generated electricity dropped by 0.1%.
The mix of all renewables produced 8.7% more electricity in January-September than they did a year ago and provided 25.6% of total U.S. electricity production compared to 24.2% one year earlier. Renewables’ share of electrical generation is now second to only that of natural gas whose electrical output actually dropped by 3.8% during the first nine months of 2025.
“The Trump Administration’s efforts to jump-start nuclear power and fossil fuels are not succeeding,” noted the SUN DAY Campaign’s executive director Ken Bossong. “Capacity additions by solar, wind, and battery storage continue to dramatically outpace gas, coal and nuclear — and by growing margins.”
