US solar generation, 2001 to 2025

Electricity generated from solar power in the United States, in gigawatt hours per year, from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The series counts net generation, the electricity actually delivered to the grid, from utility-scale plants of one megawatt and larger across all sectors: electric utilities, independent power producers, and commercial and industrial generators. It is collected on Form EIA-923, the survey behind the Electric Power Monthly, and reported as thousands of megawatt hours; the chart shows gigawatt hours. Small-scale rooftop solar is estimated separately and is not included here.

The curve is the American solar story in one line. Through the mid-2000s national solar output hovered near 500 gigawatt hours a year, almost all of it from older solar-thermal plants; the 2006 reading of 508 was the series low. Utility-scale photovoltaics then scaled that number by nearly six hundred times: 2025 generation reached 295,671 gigawatt hours, up 34 percent from 219,834 in 2024.