U.S. clean power additions jump 45% in Q2 2026, reaching 388 GW cumulative capacity

The U.S. added a record amount of clean power to the grid in the second quarter of 2026, according to a new industry report. Developers brought 164 solar, wind, and battery storage projects online, adding 17.1 gigawatts of capacity — 45% more than the same quarter last year. Total clean power capacity nationwide is now nearly 388 gigawatts, enough, the industry group estimates, to supply more than 83 million households.

Solar led the way with 7.4 gigawatts added, followed by land-based wind and battery storage. A single wind project in New Mexico, Pattern Energy's SunZia Wind farm, was the largest built in U.S. history and pushed New Mexico past Texas as the top state for new clean power additions. Battery storage capacity nationwide passed 50 gigawatts for the first time. More projects are also in the pipeline: the industry's development backlog grew to a record 205 gigawatts, and companies signed a record number of power purchase agreements (long-term contracts to buy electricity from a project) in the first half of the year.

Not everything moved smoothly. Federal permitting delays slowed down wind projects in particular, pushing back more than 11.6 gigawatts of expected capacity during the quarter. For homeowners, this growth in solar, wind, and storage generally supports a bigger, more diverse supply of electricity on the grid, which can affect power reliability and prices over time, though the report does not spell out what it means for individual utility bills.