Wind & Solar Generated A Record 17% Of U.S. Electricity In 2025 - CleanTechnica

In 2025, wind and utility-scale solar power together generated a record 17% of the United States' electricity, a significant increase from less than 1% in 2005. Specifically, wind power produced 464,000 gigawatt-hours (GWh), marking a 3% rise from 2024, while utility-scale solar generated 296,000 GWh, a substantial 34% increase over the previous year. Small-scale solar, which has been tracked since 2014, also grew by 11% in 2025, reaching 93,000 GWh. When combining utility-scale and small-scale solar with wind, these renewable sources accounted for 19% of total net electricity generation. Despite this growth, wind and solar remain intermittent energy sources, producing electricity only when wind or sunlight is available. In contrast, dispatchable sources like natural gas, coal, and nuclear power, which can provide consistent base-load electricity, still made up 75% of