U.S. quarterly solar installs jump 49%, utility scale leads surge

• SEIA/WoodMac report shows 11.7 GW added in Q3, with utility-scale projects dominant and permitting delays still a drag.

The U.S. solar industry posted a muscular quarter, adding 11.7 GW in Q3—up 49% year-on-year—according to the latest SEIA/Wood Mackenzie snapshot. Utility-scale projects did the heavy lifting, pushing solar to 58% of all new power capacity so far this year and driving total 2025 additions past 30 GW by the end of Q3. It’s a rebound built on stabilized module supply, clearer tax-credit rules, and a backlog of interconnections finally breaking loose. 

Not everything is rosy. Residential installs slipped 4% versus last year as higher financing costs and evolving net-metering rules in key states pinched demand. And the country’s single largest bottleneck remains the queue itself: permitting and interconnection delays have more than 100 GW of solar and storage sitting on paper, waiting for transformers, protection studies, and construction windows that align with grid outages. SEIA’s policy message is blunt—speed up federal land permitting and modernize the process that governs who connects, when, and on what terms. 

Project design is converging on a familiar recipe: bifacial modules on trackers, string inverters for granular control, and EMS platforms that co-optimize batteries for arbitrage and ancillary services. Developers increasingly lock in long-lead electrical equipment early, then phase construction so partial capacity can energize quickly and start earning.

The near-term outlook? Utility scale keeps carrying the load, storage takes a larger share of capex, and residential stabilizes as rates ease and new tariff structures reward self-consumption. The policy lever that moves the most megawatts now is not a new incentive—it’s a smoother path from application to energization