For the first time, Texas has bumped California out of the No 1 spot for the most utility-scale solar capacity.

US solar’s rapid rise in just 2 years

Adding 1,656 MW in Q2 2024, Texas now boasts of 21,932 MW of online solar power, according to the American Clean Power Association’s “Clean Power Quarterly Market Report | Q2 2024.”

And according to the US Solar Market Insight Q3 2024 report released today by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie, the US solar industry installed 9.4 GW of new electric generation capacity in Q2 2024, mostly thanks to utility-scale growth.

The Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which became law in 2022, has been the main catalyst for the US solar industry’s rapid rise. Solar panel manufacturing capacity now exceeds 31 gigawatts (GW) — a nearly four-fold increase under the IRA.

The solar industry has added 75 GW of new capacity to the grid, representing over 36% of all solar capacity built in US history, in just two years. Nearly 1.5 million US homes have installed solar since the IRA passed.

“The solar and storage industry is turning federal clean energy policies into action by rapidly creating jobs and powering economic growth in all 50 states, particularly in battleground states like Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia,” said SEIA president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper.

Challenges ahead

The residential solar market contracted further in Q2 2024, thanks to high interest rates and policy changes in California. Residential solar added 1.1 GW of new capacity in Q2, its lowest quarter in nearly three years. However, the residential solar market is expected to pick up again in 2025 and is projected to set annual records from 2026 to 2029.

Going forward, it won’t be smooth sailing for the US solar industry – it’s facing interconnection backlogs, electrical equipment shortages, newly proposed tariff uncertainty, and labor shortages. The SEIA predicts that annual solar installations will grow at 4% on average over the next several years as the industry grapples with those challenges.

By 2029, total US solar capacity is expected to double to 440 GW.

Read more: Enel is deploying 6,000+ sheep to 8 Texas solar farms

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