Solar and Storage Industry
Research Data
energy leadership
Solar and storage in the United States is booming. Along with our partners at Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables, SEIA tracks trends and trajectories in the solar industry that demonstrate the diverse and sustained growth of solar across the country. SEIA also collaborates with Benchmark Mineral Intelligence to follow the latest developments in the storage industry, showing storage’s rapid growth in recent years.
Below you will find charts and information summarizing the state of solar and storage in the U.S. If you’re looking for more data, explore our resources page. In addition, SEIA Members have access to presentation slide decks that contain this data and much more. Not a SEIA Member? Join today!
American Solar Deployment Grows at Record Pace
Solar has seen massive growth since 2010. There are now 262 gigawatts direct-current of solar capacity installed nationwide, enough to power 45 million homes. In the last decade, solar deployments have experienced an average annual growth rate of 28%. Strong federal policies like the solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC), rapidly declining installation costs, and increasing demand for clean electricity across the private and public sector have driven this growth.
The U.S. Installed a Record 9.7 GWh of Storage in Q1
The U.S. set a Q1 record for storage deployment, up 32% compared to Q1 2024. Now, the U.S. has installed 175 GWh of energy storage, a 177% increase since the end of 2023. This is enough to power 5.3 million American homes for an entire year on a single charge. Falling costs for battery energy storage systems (BESS), increased demand for reliable electricity, and federal and state policy incentives have driven the increase.
Solar is Creating Jobs and Driving Economic Growth
The Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) has reported that 280,000 Americans work in solar, as of 2024. Over 10,000 solar companies across U.S. states are responsible for this employment, with workers with a wide variety of backgrounds and job functions supporting the solar industry. In addition, the industry generated over $71 billion of private investment in the American economy in 2024. As solar deployment grows and advanced manufacturing facilities ramp up, more solar jobs will emerge across the U.S.
Solar and Storage Continue to Lead New Capacity Additions
Solar and storage have become the backbone of new electricity infrastructure in the U.S. In 2025, 54% and 25% of new capacity added to the grid came from solar and storage, respectively. Solar and storage’s increasing competitiveness against other technologies has allowed them to quickly increase their share of total U.S. electrical generation.
Standalone Storage Leads as Solar Paired Storage Continues to Grow
The rise in storage deployment coincides with increases in solar deployment. Just over 48% of the storage on the grid today is paired with solar, allowing utility scale solar arrays to charge the onsite storage when there is excess capacity on the grid, preventing curtailment. Recent years have also seen a boom in standalone storage, as storage brings flexibility, reliability, and savings to electricity providers and can be deployed quickly anywhere, allowing storage to help serve growing electricity demand.
Solar’s Share of U.S. Energy Production Rises Across States
Solar’s share of U.S. electricity generation has risen from less than 0.1% in 2010 to over 8% today. Solar has grown to play an increasing role in many states, now making up more than 20% of electricity production in four states and over 10% in nine more. As electricity prices continue to rise and electricity demand continues to grow, states and utilities have turned to solar as the lowest cost option for meeting incremental demand quickly and affordably.
Batteries are Trending Towards Longer Duration for Reliable, Consistent Power
The majority of BESS on the grid can discharge at full power for two to four hours, but there has been a surge in batteries that are built to discharge for four or more hours. States like California and Arizona target longer duration storage for evening renewable energy shifting, while states like Texas prefer shorter duration batteries for energy arbitrage and responding to quick price spikes. Since Texas has rapidly increased its deployment of these shorter batteries since 2025, average duration of batteries deployed dropped in Q1 2026.
Solar Prices See Volatility Due to Inflation and Supply Chain Constraints
In recent years, that has changed due to volatility from fluctuations in federal policy, inflation, and supply chain challenges. Module prices are a fraction of what they once cost, but prices have now begun to fluctuate. Residential costs fell in Q4, as customers rushed to install systems before the expiration of tax credits, while commercial and utility-costs rose as developers rushed to safe harbor equipment.
Residential Market Faces End of 25D
The residential solar market has gone through significant changes in recent years, and policy changes will force the market to continue to adapt. Changes to California’s net metering rules drove a spike and subsequent decline in solar deployment, high interest rates have hampered demand, and the repeal of the 25D tax credit is likely to lead to a decline in 2026. Increasing electricity bills and power outages have led to sustained interest in residential solar throughout the country, and companies are expected to pursue new state markets and adapt their business models to offer solar leasing options, driving growth in later years.
Key Provisions for C&I Solar Preserved
The commercial solar market, which consists of on-site solar installations for businesses, non-profits and governments, has historically been dominated by a handful of markets: California, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York. However, new state markets are emerging, with Pennsylvania and Illinois both overtaking Massachusetts and New Jersey in 2025. This led to a record setting year for the Commercial segment in 2025. Disruption to federal tax credits will lead to increased electricity costs for businesses, but the preservation of provisions will allow the commercial segment to continue to finance and install new systems in the near-term.
Community Solar Looks to New States for Growth
While early growth for community solar installations was led primarily by three key markets – New York, Minnesota, and Massachusetts – a growing list of states with community solar programs have helped diversify the market. New York remains a leader, accounting for 43% of installations, while Illinois has emerged as a strong community solar market, adding another 24% of 2025 installations. However, contractions in key states drove a drop in annual installations. While the development of new markets has stalled, many states have proposed enabling legislation (states with orange border) that could provide access to solar and savings for a wider segment of residential and commercial customers.
Tax Credit Changes to Shape Utility-Scale Deployment Timelines
The passage of HR1 will negatively impact the utility scale segment, but developers are expected to safe harbor significant project volume before the July 2026 deadline. In Q4 2025, many developers focused on safe harboring equipment ahead of the July 4th, 2026, deadline, leading to lower than expected 2025 deployment. This pipeline will support the market throughout the decade, but volumes will continue to fluctuate. Over 242 GW of new capacity will be installed, but uncertain tax and permitting policy could drop deployment numbers.
Lithium Iron Phosphate Continues its Dominant Share of the Storage Market
Lithium ion chemistry is and is likely to remain the dominant battery chemistry on the market. At the beginning of the 2020s, lithium iron phosphate (LFP) and nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) had a nearly even market share. Since then, LFP has taken the lion’s share of the market, with 77% of the storage currently deployed and 90% deployed in Q1 2026. LFP will have a similar market share through 2030, but non lithium chemistries, such as sodium ion and flow batteries are expected to deploy at scale towards the end of the decade thanks in part to data centers signing offtake agreements with long duration energy storage (LDES) batteries that use these non-lithium ion chemistries.
Forecasted Deployment is Resilient, but Risks Remain
The 2025 Year in Review includes a low and high forecast in addition to the quarterly base forecast. Treasury guidance surrounding FEOC restrictions, safe harbor capacity, tariffs, and federal permitting represent the main policy and market mechanisms that could push deployments towards the high or low cases. In later years, utility-scale projects are also heavily impacted by differences in power demand forecasts. Overall, the high and low case are 11% above and 11% below respectively compared to the base forecast.
Federal Policy Actions Hinder Solar Market Growth
While forecasts from early 2025 projected up to 330 GW of new solar to be installed from 2025-2030, actions by the Trump administration threaten to cut that volume. Wood Mackenzie’s base case forecast for the industry has fallen as supply uncertainty due to tariffs, the loss of federal energy incentives, and executive branch policy uncertainty have rocked the industry. However, the near-term utility-scale pipeline has strengthened, as developers have been focusing on safe harboring. This buoyed the base case forecast in the 2025 Year in Review to similar levels to the 2024 Year in Review forecast.
Energy Storage Looks to Continue Setting Annual Records Through 2030
Energy storage is expected to continue its exponential growth through the end of the decade and beyond. Storage will set new deployment records every year over the next five years, adding an additional 439 GWh by 2030. Increased demand from data centers and homeowners looking for reliable power could raise projections, while trade action and treasury guidance could lower them.
Solar is Key to Meeting Rising Electricity Demand
After years of flat electricity demand, forecasters project electricity demand will surge in the near future. Spurred by electrification of homes and businesses, the rapid growth of data centers, and increased buildout of U.S. manufacturing, rising electricity demand is the central challenge to the electricity sector, and solar will play a key role in meeting this demand. Without the benefits of solar’s speed and affordability, U.S. electricity customers will be forced to pay higher prices and face power outages.
Upstream Storage Manufacturing is Expected to Surge in Coming Years
Cathode Anode Material (CAM) and Active Anode Material (AAM) are time and capital intensive, so many factories are not expected to come online until 2026 or 2027. Similarly, battery cell factories are just beginning to come online, but could double current online capacity by the end of 2026. Battery pack manufacturing is the quickest to set up, so there is over 60 GWh of battery pack manufacturing currently online.
U.S. Module Manufacturing Capacity Eclipses 60 GW
The United States now has over 60 gigawatts of operating PV module capacity, with significant additional, announced volume expected to begin production soon. However, upstream PV manufacturing has yet to materialize at scale. The buildout of factories for components higher up the supply chain takes additional time, but the first solar cell factories have begun to come online, and ingot and wafer facilities are expected to follow by the end of this year.
Storage is Key for Grid Reliability
Storage deployments since the beginning of 2025 have focused on improving grid reliability and firming renewable energy generation. By storing excess solar electricity produced during the day and discharging it in the evening, batteries help meet demand more efficiently while reducing reliance on expensive, high-emitting peaker plants.
