Solar industry delivers 11.4 GW in Q2, but growth remains constrained

The U.S. added 11.4 gigawatts of new solar capacity in the second quarter of 2026, up 45% from a year earlier, according to a new report from the Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie. Texas led all states with 3.44 gigawatts installed, followed by Arizona and Florida. But the growth was uneven: big commercial and utility-scale solar projects drove the increase, while installations for individual homes and community solar projects actually declined compared to last year.

For homeowners, that residential dip is worth noting if you have been weighing rooftop solar. The report does not spell out why home installations slowed, but it suggests the current boom is concentrated in large-scale projects racing to meet a July 2026 construction deadline tied to developers' tax credit arrangements. Solar's overall share of new power capacity also slipped, from 51% in 2025 to 45% in the first half of 2026, as wind projects picked up ground, including a large new wind farm in New Mexico.

Looking ahead, analysts expect solar construction to stay strong through 2030 as these large pipeline projects get built, and they still predict U.S. solar capacity will roughly double over the next five years. But they flagged real uncertainty for the years after 2030, when a scheduled reduction in tax credits could make new projects harder to pencil out financially. None of this changes today's home solar incentives directly, but it is a sign that the broader solar market's momentum is shifting toward big commercial and utility projects rather than home rooftops, at least for now.