Oct 7, 2026 · 28 min · 11 segments
Solar and storage account for 70% of all new capacity added to the electric grid in the first half of 2026, and the US now has enough solar capacity to power more than 50 million American homes…
Tim PawlentyGuest
Eric KaneHost
So maybe I'll mention the stat and then would love it if you could help our audience-
Well, of course, most of your listeners may not understand megawatts, watts, gigawatts, but in, in general, what, what this report reflects is a significant growth in the demand for solar and storage in the United States of America, and there's reasons for that, that we can get into.
But know that the, the report generally is pointing to a direction of continued substantial growth and acceleration of deployment of solar and storage as an energy source in our country.
Yeah, so this one is really interesting, and people think about solar being sort of a, a modest piece of a pie chart in terms of the overall energy portfolio in the US.
But in year to date, twenty twenty-six, seventy percent of the new energy added to the grid, the new power added to the grid is from solar and storage, a similar percentage in calendar year twenty twenty-five, and not too much lower in, in twenty twenty-four.
And so you have a pattern now, a multi-year pattern of solar and storage being the main additional increment, the source of the main additional increment of energy going out on the grid.
Why is that significant? It's because demand, as we all know, for energy is going through the roof, and of course, price is determined by supply and demand.
So our ability to take a lead role, the solar and storage industry to take a lead role in providing more supply is helping to mitigate, uh, th- those cost shocks and the affordability issue.
If it wasn't for us doing it, you know, you could see that there'd be a very big void on the grid because lots of other sources of energy aren't quickly available like we are.
Yeah, there's sort of a, a narrative, it's not really accurate, that this is a partisan issue, that solar and storage somehow is blue versus red.
Yeah, as you just mentioned, most of the new solar and storage deployments that are taking place in the country are in places, states that voted for President Trump.
In addition, President Trump's pollster, uh, Tony Fabrizio, and another one of his pollsters, Kellyanne Conway, had some recent polling indicating that a vast majority of Republicans support solar and storage as an important part of our go forward energy portfolio for the country.
So it really isn't as partisan as some commentators or some observers have, have tried to allege.
So maybe I'll mention the stat and then would love it if you could help our audience-
Well, of course, most of your listeners may not understand megawatts, watts, gigawatts, but in, in general, what, what this report reflects is a significant growth in the demand for solar and storage in the United States of America, and there's reasons for that, that we can get into.
But know that the, the report generally is pointing to a direction of continued substantial growth and acceleration of deployment of solar and storage as an energy source in our country.
Yeah, so this one is really interesting, and people think about solar being sort of a, a modest piece of a pie chart in terms of the overall energy portfolio in the US.
But in year to date, twenty twenty-six, seventy percent of the new energy added to the grid, the new power added to the grid is from solar and storage, a similar percentage in calendar year twenty twenty-five, and not too much lower in, in twenty twenty-four.
And so you have a pattern now, a multi-year pattern of solar and storage being the main additional increment, the source of the main additional increment of energy going out on the grid.
Why is that significant? It's because demand, as we all know, for energy is going through the roof, and of course, price is determined by supply and demand.
So our ability to take a lead role, the solar and storage industry to take a lead role in providing more supply is helping to mitigate, uh, th- those cost shocks and the affordability issue.
If it wasn't for us doing it, you know, you could see that there'd be a very big void on the grid because lots of other sources of energy aren't quickly available like we are.
Yeah, there's sort of a, a narrative, it's not really accurate, that this is a partisan issue, that solar and storage somehow is blue versus red.
Yeah, as you just mentioned, most of the new solar and storage deployments that are taking place in the country are in places, states that voted for President Trump.
In addition, President Trump's pollster, uh, Tony Fabrizio, and another one of his pollsters, Kellyanne Conway, had some recent polling indicating that a vast majority of Republicans support solar and storage as an important part of our go forward energy portfolio for the country.
So it really isn't as partisan as some commentators or some observers have, have tried to allege.
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