A leading trade association for the clean energy industry said its data shows growth in U.S. renewable energy deployments is slowing at a significant rate, as the Trump administration continues to adopt policies aimed at limiting the sector.
The American Clean Power Association (ACP), in its “Clean Power Quarterly Market Report” released September 3, said U.S. developers deployed more than 11 GW of new utility-scale solar, wind, and energy storage capacity in the second quarter of this year. The group said the new projects represent an investment of $15.2 billion. The ACP cautioned, though, that while its data show the U.S. now has more than 332 GW of operating clean energy projects, year-over-year growth showed less than a 1% increase when measured against the second quarter of 2024.
The group on Wednesday said growth in the clean energy development pipeline was virtually non-existent, growing by less than 100 MW to 184.5 GW. The ACP said solar power installations comparatively fell by 23% in the first half of this year. Power purchase agreements (PPAs), often used to bring early financial support for project construction, also “plummeted,” the group said, calling that “early indicators of federal policy attacks and fluctuating trade policy undermining American energy security and economic growth.”
“America’s clean energy industry continues to add much needed power to the grid. Unfortunately, federal policy obstacles and restrictive mandates are threatening hundreds of billions in planned energy investment,” said ACP CEO Jason Grumet. “The uncertainty created by new bureaucratic delays and unclear demands is having a chilling effect on the pipeline for future energy projects, stalling growth precisely when our nation needs more energy to power a growing economy.”
Stable Policies Crucial for Investment
The ACP in its report said that federal policy actions from nearly every government agency, including the Dept. of Energy, and an ever-changing tariff environment “have led to a drop in clean power purchasing and planning for the future—despite skyrocketing demand nationwide.”
Energy Secretary Chris Wright earlier this year called renewable energy a “parasite” on the nation’s power grid. “If you’re not there at peak demand, you’re just a parasite on the grid, because you just make the other sources turn up and down as you come and go,” Wright told the Subcommittee on Energy. “Our electricity markets have rewarded low-value electricity, and we’ve subsidized [it] to put more of it on. We need to have people bidding into a marketplace that are both delivering the same product, which is 24/7 electricity, because that’s the only thing customers will buy.”
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The group said the first six months of this year had 32% less capacity being contracted through PPAs than the same period a year ago. It said PPA announcements in the battery energy storage space fell a whopping 88% from Q1 to Q2, while announcements of wind power agreements were off 93%.
The report said corporate wind and solar PPA prices also moved higher, jumping 6% from Q1 to Q2, and are up 8% year-over-year. The ACP said higher costs are “reflecting the instability of the purchasing environment. Immense industry uncertainty led to stalled growth of procurements during the second quarter of 2025 compared to the previous quarter, as developers and purchasers awaited further clarity on changes to tax credit guidance and attempted to budget with shifting trade agreements.”
Highlights of the Report
The ACP called out several important points from the report, including:
- Total Installed Capacity: As of June 30, the U.S. had more than 330 GW of clean power capacity in operation, enough to power more than 81 million homes.
- Procurement Falls Dramatically: The first half of 2025 saw a 32% decrease in capacity being contracted through PPAs compared to the first half of 2024. Other types of agreements are down 48%, compared to the first half of 2024.
- Project Pipeline Growth Stagnates: The clean power pipeline sat at 184,500 MW at the end of Q2, up only 100 MW from the end of the first quarter of 2025.
- Storage Continues to Climb: Developers added over 6.5 GW in the first half of 2025, 63% more than the first half of 2024.
- Construction Goes Forward: At midyear 2025, developers reported that 83,403 MW of projects were under construction, spanning 580 projects. Construction activity was highest in Texas (21 GW) followed by Arizona (7.8 GW), California (7.2 GW), New Mexico (4.8 GW) and Wyoming (4.1 GW).
- Major Growth in Arizona: Arizona became the latest state to surpass 10 GW of clean power installed, after adding 1,220 MW of new solar capacity and 1,369 MW of new storage capacity in the quarter. The state now hosts the third-largest storage fleet and fifth-largest utility-scale solar capacity in the country, as well as the second-largest clean power pipeline after Texas.
- States Rely on Solar: Texas, Indiana, Arkansas, Kansas, and Michigan added mostly new solar, while Illinois was the only state in the quarterly top 10 to add mostly wind capacity.
- Power Doesn’t Need to be Political: Eight of the top 10 states for Q2 clean power additions voted Republican in the most recent presidential election.
“Clean energy is the fastest-to-deploy energy resource. With demand for electricity at historic highs, Americans cannot afford policies that limit power production and raise household electricity bills,” said Grumet. “The U.S. must support all forms of energy.”
A public version of the report is available on the ACP website, with the full report and underlying datasets available exclusively to ACP members.
—Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER.
