A new review of US Energy Information Administration (EIA) data by the SUN DAY Campaign reveals that in July, solar-powered electricity shot up by over 30%, while wind grew by almost 14% in the US.
Solar continues to break records in July
EIA’s latest monthly “Electric Power Monthly” report (with data through July 31, 2025), once again confirms that solar is the fastest growing among the major sources of US electricity.
In July alone, electrical generation by utility-scale solar (i.e., >1-megawatt (MW)) surged by 36.9% compared to July 2024, while “estimated” small-scale (e.g., rooftop) solar PV increased by 12.7%. Combined, they grew by 30.4% and provided 9.4% of US electrical output, up from 7.5% year-over-year.
Moreover, utility-scale solar thermal and photovoltaic expanded by 37.4%, while generation from small-scale systems rose by 11.0% during the first seven months of 2025 year-over-year. The combination of utility-scale and small-scale solar increased by 29.9% and was 8.9% (utility-scale: 6.7%; small-scale: 2.2%) of total US electrical generation for January to July – up from 7.0% a year earlier.
As a consequence, solar-generated electricity year-to-date (YTD) easily surpassed – by over 54% – the output of US hydropower plants (5.7%). In July alone, solar-generated electricity more than doubled the output of hydropower. In fact, in both July and YTD, solar produced more electricity than hydropower, biomass, and geothermal combined.
And for the first time ever, 4% more electricity was generated in July by utility-scale solar (33,119-GWh) than by wind farms (31,831-GWh). Including small-scale systems, solar outproduced wind by over 35% during the month (43,092 GWh).
Wind is still on a growth trajectory
US wind turbines produced 10.8% of US electricity in the first seven months of 2025, an increase of 3.5% year-over-year, and they almost doubled electrical generation by the nation’s hydropower plants.
In July alone, wind-generated electricity was 13.8% greater than a year before.
Wind + solar are beating coal, nuclear
During the first seven months of 2025, electrical generation by wind plus utility-scale and small-scale solar provided 19.6% of the US total, up from 17.8% during the first seven months of 2024.
Further, the EIA reports that the combination of wind and solar provided 19.1% more electricity than did coal during the first seven months of 2025, and 14.1% more than nuclear. In fact, as solar and wind grew rapidly, nuclear-generated electricity dropped by 1.0%.
Renewables are still on the rise
All renewables combined (wind, solar, hydropower, biomass, and geothermal) produced 9.9% more electricity between January and July than they did a year ago and provided 26.7% of total US electricity production compared to 25.1% 12 months earlier.
Electrical generation by the combination of all renewables grew three times faster than total US electrical generation (9.9% vs. 3.3%). Renewables’ share of electrical generation is now second to only that of natural gas, which saw a decline in electrical output by almost 3.5% during the first seven months of 2025.
“Notwithstanding enactment of the anti-renewables provisions in the Trump megabill, solar and wind continue to power ahead,” noted the SUN DAY Campaign’s executive director, Ken Bossong. “Meanwhile, the electrical output YTD by the Republicans’ preferred technologies – nuclear power and natural gas – has actually fallen.”
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