More than 17 gigawatts of new power capacity went online in the fourth quarter of 2024 and most (95%) of this capacity was renewable. Eighty-six percent of new capacity was from solar generation, with 12.6 gigawatts of utility-scale solar and 2.2 gigawatts of distributed solar. Wind energy buildout contributed 1.5 gigawatts, while fossil gas grew by 854 megawatts.
The chart below illustrates the past two years of electric power capacity additions in the U.S., disaggregated by energy source, quarterly.
Key takeaways:
- Eighty-six percent of all new capacity installed in the fourth quarter of 2024 was solar; 73.6 percent from utility-scale solar farms and 12.7 percent from distributed solar installations (residential, commercial, and community solar).
- Distributed solar buildout continued the upward trajectory that started in the third quarter, after a slowdown in the first half of the year. More distributed solar was added in the fourth quarter of 2024 than in any other quarter over the past two years.
- Only 854 megawatts of new gas-fired power generation capacity came online in the fourth quarter. While this was more gas-fired capacity than was added in any other quarter this year, it is still only five percent of the total capacity added in the fourth quarter. It is also less than was added in any quarter in 2023.
- Developers also installed 3.4 gigawatts of utility-scale energy storage in the fourth quarter of 2024 – more than any other quarter in 2024, and a 30% increase over the previous quarter.
For more on the advancement of clean, distributed energy, see these recent ILSR resources:
- The 2025 Community Power Scorecard
- Community Power Map
- Community Solar Tracker
- State Community Solar Programs
- Community Leaders on the Benefits of Locally Owned Clean Energy
- What the Monopoly Utility Model Really Costs Us
- Upcharge: Hidden Costs of Electric Utility Monopoly Power
- Local Energy Rules episode 231 – Community Solar 2.0 is Coming to Boston
- Local Energy Rules episode 230 – On Molokai, A Community Cooperative for Energy Sovereignty
Interested in earlier trends and analysis of new power plant capacity? Check out our archive, illustrating how electricity generation has changed in previous quarters and years.
This article was originally posted at ilsr.org. For timely updates from the Energy Democracy Initiative, follow John Farrell on Twitter or Bluesky, and subscribe to the Energy Democracy weekly update.
Featured Photo Credit: U.S. Department of Agriculture via Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)