Land-based wind power pipeline shrinks as price gap with solar widens

This is bigger-picture energy news, not something that changes your own upgrade plans, but it helps explain why power prices and grid conditions look the way they do. Land-based wind projects added nearly 5 gigawatts of capacity in the second quarter of 2026, but the overall pipeline of new wind projects shrank 4%, partly because at least 44 gigawatts of wind projects are stuck waiting on review at the Department of Defense. A judge recently ordered that review process to restart, so some of those projects may move again.

At the same time, wind power is getting more expensive compared to solar. Wind contracts averaged $83.79 per megawatt-hour in the second quarter, up sharply from a year earlier, while solar averaged $61.40, a gap industry analysts call the widest on record. One reason solar has stayed cheaper: overall demand for clean power, especially from utilities and large tech companies building data centers, keeps growing, pushing wind prices up as fewer new wind projects come online to meet it.

Analysts expect solar prices to rise in coming months too, tied to a new tariff on imported polysilicon, a material used in solar panels. None of this changes rebates or incentives for home upgrades, but it's part of why electricity costs and grid reliability keep showing up in the news — utilities are racing to add power fast enough to keep up with demand, and the mix of wind, solar, and battery storage they build affects prices everywhere, including on your own utility bill over time.