The US Is About to Build More Power in One Year Than It Has Since 2002

Here's a number that deserves your attention: 86.

That's how many gigawatts of new electricity generation the United States plans to connect to its grid this year. It's the largest single-year expansion in over two decades — nearly doubling the 53 GW added in 2025.

And here's the part that really matters: 93% of it is solar, battery storage, and wind.

What Just Happened

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) dropped its February 2026 Electric Power Monthly report this week, and the numbers tell a story that's hard to argue with — regardless of where you sit politically.

Solar alone makes up 51% of all planned additions: 43.4 GW. That's not a rounding error. That's half of all new power generation in the country coming from panels soaking up sunlight.

Battery storage is next at 28%, adding 24.3 GW — a 57% jump from last year. Wind accounts for 14%, with 11.8 GW planned.

Natural gas? Just 6.3 GW. Seven percent of the total. Coal and petroleum are actually shrinking — losing a combined 5 GW of capacity.

To put this in perspective: the US added 53 GW total last year. This year, solar and batteries alone are projected to add 67.7 GW. More than all sources combined in 2025.

The Tipping Point Nobody Announced

There was no press conference. No ribbon-cutting ceremony. But something has quietly shifted in American energy, and the 2025 numbers confirm it.

Renewables now generate more than 26% of all US electricity — up from about 21% just two years ago. Solar and wind combined have surpassed both coal and nuclear as power sources. Wind and solar together produced 15.7% more electricity than coal last year, and 8.7% more than nuclear.

Meanwhile, natural gas — still the biggest single source — saw its output drop 3.3% in 2025.

None of this happened because of a mandate. It happened because the economics flipped. Solar panels got cheap. Batteries got cheaper. And the combination of the two solved the oldest knock against renewables: "What happens when the sun goes down?"

Now there's an answer: you store it.

The Battery Revolution Within the Revolution

If there's a story within the story, it's batteries.

Utility-scale battery storage grew 58.4% in 2025, adding 15.77 GW. This year, EIA projects another 24.3 GW — bringing total battery capacity on the US grid to levels that were science fiction a decade ago.

Why does this matter? Because batteries turn intermittent power into reliable power. A solar farm that generates electricity for eight hours a day becomes a 24-hour power source when paired with storage. That changes everything about how grid operators think about renewables.

Texas — not exactly known for its environmental activism — is now one of the biggest battery storage markets in the country. California has been using batteries to replace natural gas peaker plants during evening demand spikes. The economics don't care about politics.

How This Looks From Outside America

Zoom out, and the US numbers are part of a global pattern that's accelerating faster than most forecasts predicted.

The International Energy Agency projects that between 2025 and 2030, more than 90% of all new electricity capacity worldwide will be renewable. China installed 373 GW of renewables in 2024 alone — more than the US has in total installed capacity. India is racing to hit 500 GW of renewable capacity by 2030.

Europe has been on this path longer, with countries like Denmark and Portugal regularly running their grids on 80-100% renewables for stretches at a time.

But the US story is different because of scale and speed. America is the world's largest energy consumer. When it shifts, the supply chains shift with it. Panel manufacturers build more factories. Battery chemistry improves faster. Installation costs drop for everyone.

The 86 GW number isn't just an American story — it's a signal to global energy markets about where investment is flowing.

What Could Slow This Down

It would be incomplete to ignore the headwinds.

The Supreme Court just struck down the Trump administration's global tariffs this week, but trade policy remains a moving target. Solar panels rely on global supply chains, and any new tariffs on Chinese-manufactured components could raise costs and slow installations. The EIA's 86 GW figure is based on what developers have planned — not all of it will necessarily get built.

Permitting and grid interconnection remain bottlenecks. Across the country, there's a growing queue of renewable projects waiting to connect to transmission lines that haven't been upgraded since the last century. Some projects wait years.

And then there's the question of workforce. Building 86 GW of anything in one year requires a lot of skilled labor — electricians, engineers, construction crews. The industry is hiring, but training takes time.

What It Means for the Future

Still, the direction is unmistakable. The EIA expects solar, wind, and batteries to add 62% more capacity in 2026 than they did in 2025. Coal and petroleum capacity continues to shrink. Natural gas additions are a fraction of what they were five years ago.

The US electrical grid is being rebuilt in real time, and the new version runs mostly on sunlight, wind, and lithium.

This isn't a projection or a campaign promise. It's what's actually being built, right now, across rooftops in Arizona and wind farms in Iowa and battery installations in Texas.

Eighty-six gigawatts. Ninety-three percent clean. The largest grid expansion in a generation.

The transition isn't coming. It's here.