New U.S. Electric Generating Capacity Expected to Reach a Record High in 2026
U.S. power plant developers and operators plan to add 86 gigawatts (GW) of new utility-scale electric generating capacity to the U.S. power grid in 2026 in our latest Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory report, a record if realized. Solar power makes up 51% of the planned 2026 capacity additions, followed by battery storage at 28% and wind at 14%.
In 2025, 53 GW of new capacity was added to the grid, the largest capacity installation in a single year since 2002.
Data source:U.S. Energy Information Administration, Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory, December 2025
Solar. We expect 2026 to be another big year for solar additions, similar to the record utility-scale solar capacity added to the U.S. grid in 2024 (30.8 GW) and in 2025 (27.2 GW). Developers plan to add 43.4 GW of new utility-scale solar capacity in 2026, a 60% increase in capacity additions from last year if realized.
More than half of the new utility-scale solar capacity is planned for four states: Texas (40%), Arizona (6%), California (6%), and Michigan (5%).
A new project, Tehuacana Creek 1 Solar and BESS, adding 837 megawatts (MW) in Texas, is the largest solar photovoltaic project expected to come online in 2026; it will also offer an additional 418 MW in battery energy storage capacity.
Battery storage. Developers plan to add 24 GW of utility-scale battery storage to the grid this year, compared with a record 15 GW added in 2025. U.S. battery storage capacity has grown exponentially over the last five years with more than 40 GW added to the grid during this period.
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Trump EPA Official Comes to Louisville Power Plant to Tout Weaker Pollution Rules
Republican elected officials and advocates for the coal industry gathered at one of Kentucky’s largest coal-fired power plants to celebrate the Trump administration’s weakening of regulatory curbs on toxic air pollution, including the neurotoxin mercury.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Deputy Administrator David Fotouhi told reporters Friday at the 54-year-old Mill Creek Generating Station in Jefferson County that the federal agency would roll back mercury and air toxics standards to 2012 levels set by the Obama administration. Both the Obama and Biden administrations had toughened the regulations on mercury and other pollutants.
Speaking in a lobby next to towering, billowing smokestacks, Fotouhi promoted the move as benefiting ratepayers and something that “rights the wrongs” of the Biden administration.
Among those on hand for the announcement were Republican Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman, Republican U.S. Rep. and U.S. Senate candidate Andy Barr, Kentucky coal magnate and Republican megadonor Joe Craft and executives of Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities, which operates the 1,465-megawatt capacity Mill Creek Generating Station.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Deputy Administrator David Fotouhi said the rollback was a part of an “overall approach” by the Trump administration to prioritize “base load power.”
“We are proud to return to a common sense regulatory approach that provides certainty for American businesses to spark new investment and job creation across the country,’ Fotouhi said. “Both the Obama and Biden administrations tried to erect barriers that could thwart American energy. Those days are over.”
The deregulation is the latest move by the Trump administration to deconstruct his predecessors’ efforts to curb emissions from power plants, including climate change-driving greenhouse gas emissions.
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Montana Governor's Statement on EPA Reversal of Biden-Era Anti-Coal Rule
Montana Governor Greg Gianforte has released the following statement praising the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) repeal of the Biden Administration’s 2024 amendments to the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) for power plants:
“During the Biden administration, the EPA weaponized its rulemaking authority against coal-generated power, threatening the early retirement of Colstrip and other coal mines across the nation. Thanks to President Donald J. Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, America’s coal-fired power plants can continue to support thousands of jobs and provide affordable, reliable baseload power while ensuring public health and the environment are protected.
Greg Gianforte
“The demand for energy is only increasing. Through this action, the federal government shows its support for states like Montana that are focused on strengthening and securing our grid to keep the lights and heat on in our homes, schools, and businesses.”
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EPA Action on MATS Supports Affordable, Reliable Electricity
The National Mining Association (NMA) has applauded the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) decision to repeal the prior administration's Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS).
Not only were these revisions far too costly to justify the minimal emission reductions they would achieve, EPA also previously failed to demonstrate the new standards would be achievable in the real world. The 2012 MATS rule resulted in historic and massive premature retirements of coal power plants, and the 2024 amendments would have led to even more. EPA's action today ensures that this does not happen again. As has been demonstrated multiple times during the last year when electricity demand has surged and grids across the country have been pushed to their limits, coal generation has provided a grid reliability backstop. With power demand growing rapidly from the AI revolution, coal generation will be a critical part of the comprehensive energy strategy required to affordably and reliably meet it.
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Coal Answers the Natural Gas Bottleneck
American manufacturers are facing an energy crisis. Despite the U.S. being the world’s largest natural gas producer, manufacturers are increasingly being cutoff from natural gas supplies during periods of peak winter and summer demand. The critical challenge is a lack of pipeline capacity to meet the competing needs of power generation, heating and manufacturing. And unfortunately, the situation is deteriorating.
The rapid addition of gas demand from power plants, data centers, crypto currency and booming LNG exports is mounting far faster than the ability to meet those competing needs with natural gas alone. For manufacturers, gas unavailability is shuttering operations for days at a time and making the addition of new facilities impossible.
The Wall Street Journal recently painted an alarming picture:
“As frigid weather swept over the mid-Atlantic region late last month, Evonik Industries’ plant in Havre de Grace, Md., received notice from its local utility: Shut off the gas or risk huge financial penalties.
Workers at the Evonik plant were dispatched to close the gas supply valve into the factory, where the German chemical maker produces silica for toothpaste and food products.
Without gas for its manufacturing process, the plant ceased production. Emergency heaters were fired up so equipment didn’t freeze. Workers were assigned maintenance tasks until the gas could flow again. The outage lasted seven days.”
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