The U.S. solar industry installed 19.2 GW of PV capacity in the first half of 2026, according to the latest US Solar Market Insight report from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie. This compares with around 18.7 GW deployed in the same period of 2025.
The new additions brought the country’s cumulative installed solar PV capacity to approximately 298 GW at the end of the first half of 2026.
In the second quarter alone, the United States added 11.4 GW of solar capacity, up 45% from the same quarter a year earlier.
Texas again led total capacity additions, with 3.44 GW, followed by Arizona at 1.76 GW and Florida with 1.61 GW.
While installations in the residential and community solar segments declined year-over-year, the nation saw an 11% increase in commercial solar installations and a whopping 61% increase in utility-scale volume over Q2 2025.
The report indicates that strength in the utility-scale segment was largely due to the build-out of projects in developers’ safe-harbored pipelines, which is expected to continue through the end of through 2030 as developers race to energize projects that were safe-harbored by the July 4, 2026 deadline to begin construction.
The SEIA/WoodMac analysts expect those pipelines to sustain roughly 44 GW of annual capacity additions through that time, but note that permitting and interconnection bottlenecks will constrain growth as the industry awaits the appeal of the July 2025 Department of Interior memo that forced projects on public lands (and those requiring federal agency consultations) to get direct approval from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s office. An appeal of that directive is ongoing.
While solar installation volumes remain high, the total share of installed generation capacity represented by the sector fell from 51% in 2025 to 45% in the first half of 2026, driven by a major increase in the installed capacity of wind projects. The most notable of these wind projects is the 3.65 MW SunZia Wind project in New Mexico, which came online in June.
By the end of 2026, the capacity numbers are expected to return to near 2025 levels, with the U.S. Energy Information Administration predicting a 51% share for solar, alongside a mix of 28% battery storage, 14% wind and 7% natural gas capacity.
Over the long term, the analysts raised their capacity projections modestly, anticipating a doubling in the total installed solar capacity over the next 5 years, without much effect from the recently enacted module tariffs under Section 232. However, the experts caution that the post-2030 outlook remains uncertain, with project economics becoming challenging after the so-called “tax credit cliff” set for the end of 2030.
The post U.S. deploys 19.2 GW of solar in H1 appeared first on pv magazine Global.
