One Decade of Renewable Energy Progress in America

Key takeaways

• Solar energy capacity is growing much faster than wind due to falling PV costs
• Battery storage, a relatively new category, is also growing rapidly
• Natural gas is still the dominant source of U.S. energy, outsizing all three of these categories combined

Solar is surging

2024 was a record year for new solar energy installations in the U.S., with 39.4 GW of capacity added. This is up from 27.4 GW in 2023, and 17.9 GW in 2022.

According to Our World in Data, the cost of solar panels has fallen by 90% over the last decade.