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 58 GWh of Storage Capacity in 2025
U.S. battery energy storage capacity now reaches 166.1 GWh of installed capacity, up 53% from the end of 2023. This is enough to power every home in America for 58 minutes, or over 5 million homes for an entire year. Storage deployment demand is driven by falling costs for battery energy storage systems (BESS), increased demand for reliable electricity, and federal and state policy incentives.
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 Lead New Capacity Additions
Solar and storage have become the backbone of new electricity infrastructure in the U.S. Combined, these technologies have represented 85% of new capacity added this year. Solar’s increasing competitiveness against other technologies has allowed it to quickly increase its share of total U.S. electrical generation.
Solar Economy Stimulates Growth Across Sectors
In addition to the direct employment of the industry, solar is responsible for additional employment in other industries as well. The University of Louisiana, Lafayette found that, in 2023, solar supported over 600,000 total jobs, when accounting for indirect jobs (created by business to business transactions with other industries) and induced jobs (created when workers spend their earnings).
Storage is Key for Grid Reliability
Storage deployments in 2025 focused on making the grid more reliable and firming renewables to allow excess electricity generated by solar during the day to provide electricity to homes and businesses in the evening. This makes the grid more reliable and saves money, as utilities can opt to discharge electricity from batteries as opposed to turning on dirty, expensive peaker plants.
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.
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. 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
Despite a slight dip in 2025, average battery duration on the grid has grown over the years, as batteries have become more efficient and larger in size. 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.
Solar Prices See Volatility Due to Inflation and Supply Chain Constraints
Solar’s growth has been enabled by the technology’s rapid cost declines since the early 2010s. Module prices are a fraction of what they once cost, but as the technology has matured, prices have now begun to fluctuate. Rapidly changing trade policy, the global pandemic, and inflation have impacted solar prices. While prices fluctuate quarter to quarter, solar remains a cost effective solution for all types of customers.
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 deployment, high interest rates have hampered demand, and the repeal of the 25D tax credit is likely to lead to a decline in 2026. Still, increasing electricity bills and power outages have led to sustained interest in residential solar, 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. Federal tax policy has led to growth in emerging commercial markets through provisions on transferability, direct pay, and the various adder credits. Disruption to the tax credits will lead to increased electricity costs for businesses, but the preservation of these 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. 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. This pipeline will support the market throughout the decade, but volumes will decline each year after 2027. Nearly 200 GW of capacity is expected to be installed, but uncertain federal tax and permitting policy present significant risk.
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 91% deployed in 2025. 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.
Forecasted Deployment is Resilient, but Risks Remain
Solar is expected to deploy significant volumes to the grid over the next five years, but policy changes have already hindered future deployment, and additional actions from the Trump administration pose a further threat to the industry. Deployments will average 40 GW annually over the next five years, but the risk posed by attacks on the permitting of solar projects, further treasury guidance, and uncertainty in the solar supply chain could further reduce deployment by over 20%.
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 significantly. 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. While solar continues to face headwinds, heightened demand for cheap, reliable electricity generation will support the solar market throughout the decade.
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.
Companies Procure Record Levels of Solar and Storage
Data from SEIA’s annual Solar Means Business report show that major U.S. corporations, including Meta, Amazon, Google, Apple, and Walmart are investing in solar and storage at record levels. Through Q1 2024, the top corporate solar users in America have installed nearly 40 GW of solar capacity, along with over 1.8 GWh of battery storage. Other key takeaways:
- Over 18% of U.S. solar capacity has a corporate offtaker
- Companies are increasingly diversifying their procurement strategies, including through both on-site and off-site solar, as well as community solar, green tariffs, and solar + storage
- Amazon, Google, and Meta have a combined contracted pipeline of over 25 GW
You can explore SEIA’s Solar Means Business report, view additional data and read market sentiment analysis of the corporate solar space.
