In the third quarter of 2025, the U.S. solar industry added 11.7 GW of new installed capacity, marking the third-best quarterly performance on record for the sector.
This is one of the key takeaways from the latest U.S. market report released by the trade group Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and analysis firm Wood Mackenzie. The report shows that U.S. solar photovoltaic installed capacity exceeded 30 GW in the first nine months of 2025.
The third-quarter data stands in sharp contrast to the previous quarter. In Q2 2025, following the passage of the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), solar installation growth slowed to 7.5 GW.
Despite the surge in solar photovoltaic installed capacity in Q3 2025, which accounted for 58% of new power generation capacity added to the U.S. grid during the quarter, political and permitting obstacles remain.
According to SEIA, a memorandum issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) in July, along with other federal actions blocking large-scale ground-mounted solar and energy storage projects under development, has created “significant commercial uncertainty.”
Due to the lack of clarity from the U.S. Department of the Interior regarding permitting timelines or project approvals, SEIA and Wood Mackenzie’s forecasts for utility-scale solar deployment through 2030 remain unchanged compared to Q2 2025. This means deployment projections by the end of the decade are still 55 GW lower than initially expected, while installed capacity this year is anticipated to decline year-on-year to below 50 GW.
