HIGHLIGHTS
- DESPITE REPUBLICANS' ANTI-RENEWABLES BILL, EIA DATA FOR JULY REVEAL:
- UTILITY-SCALE SOLAR ELECTRICITY GREW 37% AND SURPASSED WIND WHICH EXPANDED BY 14%
- OUTPUT BY ALL RENEWABLES GREW 3x TIMES FASTER THAN TOTAL GENERATION GROWTH
A review by the SUN DAY Campaign of data just released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reveals that despite Donald Trump's signing the Republican Congress' anti-renewables legislation (i.e., the so-called One Big Beautiful Act) in early July, solar-generated electricity ballooned by over 30% during the month while wind grew by almost 14%.
Solar electrical generation set new records in July and the first seven months of 2025:
EIA's latest monthly "Electric Power Monthly" report (with data through July 31, 2025), once again confirms that solar is the fastest growing among the major sources of U.S. electricity.
In July alone, electrical generation by utility-scale solar (i.e., >1-megawatt (MW)) ballooned by a more than one-third (36.9%) compared to July 2024 while "estimated" small-scale (e.g., rooftop) solar PV increased by 12.7%. Combined, they grew by 30.4% and provided nearly one-tenth (9.4%) of the nation's electrical output during the month, up from 7.5% a year ago. [1]
Moreover, utility-scale solar thermal and photovoltaic expanded by 37.4% while that from small-scale systems rose by 11.0% during the first seven months of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024. The combination of utility-scale and small-scale solar increased by almost a third (29.9%) and was almost 8.9% (utility-scale: 6.7%; small-scale: 2.2%) of total U.S. electrical generation for January-July - up from 7.0% a year earlier.
As a consequence, solar-generated electricity year-to-date (YTD) easily surpassed - by over 54% - the output of the nation's hydropower plants (5.7%). In July alone, solar-generated electricity more than doubled the output of the nation's hydropower plants. In fact, in both July and YTD, solar produced more electricity than hydropower, biomass, and geothermal combined. [2]
Moreover, for apparently the first time ever, 4% more electricity was generated in July by utility-scale solar than by the nation's wind farms. Including small-scale systems, solar out-produced wind by over 35% during the month. [3]
Wind also made a strong showing in July and YTD:
Wind turbines across the U.S. produced almost one-ninth (10.8%) of U.S. electricity in the first seven months of 2025 - an increase of 3.5% compared to the same period a year earlier and almost doubled electrical generation by the nation's hydropower plants.
In July alone, wind-generated electricity was 13.8% greater than a year before.
Wind + solar are almost one-fifth of total U.S. electrical generation - a larger share than that provided by either coal or nuclear power:
During the first seven months of 2025, electrical generation by wind plus utility-scale and small-scale solar provided almost a fifth (19.6%) of the U.S. total, up from 17.8% during the first seven months of 2024.
Further, the combination of wind and solar provided 19.1% more electricity than did coal during the first seven months of this year, and 14.1% more than the nation's nuclear power plants. In fact, as solar and wind grew rapidly, nuclear-generated electricity dropped by 1.0%.
Electrical output YTD by the mix of all renewables was almost 27% of total U.S. generation:
The mix of all renewables (i.e., wind and solar plus hydropower, biomass and geothermal) produced 9.9% more electricity in January-July than they did a year ago and provided (26.7%) of total U.S. electricity production compared to 25.1% twelve months earlier.
Electrical generation by the combination of all renewables grew three times faster than that of total U.S. electrical generation (9.9% vs. 3.3%). Renewables' share of electrical generation is now second to only that of natural gas whose electrical output actually dropped by almost 3.5% during the first seven months of 2025.
"Notwithstanding enactment of the anti-renewables provisions in the Trump megabill, solar and wind continue to power ahead," noted the SUN DAY Campaign's executive director Ken Bossong. "Meanwhile the electrical output YTD by the Republicans' preferred technologies - nuclear power and natural gas - has actually fallen." [4]
Source:
EIA released its latest "Electric Power Monthly" report on September 23, 2025. The full report can be found at: https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly
For the data cited in this release, see Table ES1.A ("Total Electric Power Industry Summary Statistics, 2025 and 2024") as well as Table ES1.B ("Total Electric Power Industry Summary Statistics, Year-to-Date 2025 and 2024").
Notes:
[1] In its "Electric Power Monthly" report, EIA refers to small-scale or distributed solar as "Estimated Small Scale Solar Photovoltaic." Unless otherwise indicated, all calculations presented in this release include electrical generation by small-scale solar which EIA estimates to have totaled 56,998-GWh in January-July 2025 and 9,973-GWh in July alone. Utility-scale solar totaled 175,735-GWh for the first seven months and 33,119-GWH in just July.
[2] In January-July 2025, wind produced 284,063-GWh (10.8%) of total U.S. electrical generation while utility-scale and small-scale solar combined produced 232,733-GWh (8.8%), hydropower produced 151,068-GWh (5.7%), biomass produced 26,645-GWh (1.0%), and geothermal produced 9,108-GWh (>0.3%).
[3] In July alone, wind produced 31,831-GWh while utility-scale solar produced 33,119-GWh. The combination of utility-scale and small-scale solar totaled 43,092-GWh.
[4] For the first seven months of 2025, electrical output by nuclear power totaled 453,065-GWh compared to 457,681-GWh during the same period a year earlier. Electrical generation by natural gas totaled 1,026,811-GWh for the period January-July 2025 compared to 1,063,651-GWh a year earlier.
The SUN DAY Campaign is a non-profit research and educational organization founded in 1992 to support a rapid transition to 100% reliance on sustainable energy technologies as a cost-effective alternative to nuclear power and fossil fuels and as a solution to climate change.
