Charts tell one story; politics tell another. In 2025, the charts — stacked with solar panels, turbines and batteries — kept climbing even as Washington sliced at climate programs and paused high-profile projects.
The numbers are blunt. The U.S. added 56 gigawatts of new power capacity in 2024, and roughly 96 percent of it was carbon-free. Solar alone accounted for about 34 GW of that gain. Across the Atlantic, Europe saw solar eclipse gas and coal for the first time in a month. Globally, the first half of 2025 was the first stretch in history when renewables out-produced coal. Those wins are not tiny blips: solar and wind together met nearly all new power demand through September, and worldwide clean‑energy investment was on track to be roughly double what fossil fuels attracted.
Why deployment kept moving
A few forces explain the stubborn momentum. First, cost. Solar and onshore wind are often the cheapest ways to add power supply, and batteries are finally maturing fast enough to smooth out variability. BloombergNEF estimated the U.S. will add nearly 67 GW of utility-scale battery storage in the next five years — roughly tripling current capacity — which makes renewables more practical for grid operators and investors.
Second, markets. Corporations and data centers are ravenous for low‑cost, round‑the‑clock electricity. That demand creates a predictable customer for renewables plus storage, speeding project finance and construction. The same tech boom that fuels AI — and the sprawling server farms behind it — is reshaping where and how much power we need; some companies are even exploring off‑earth concepts to house compute like Google’s Project Suncatcher. The pressure from big energy customers helps explain why developers kept building even as federal policy chilled.
Third, global supply chains and policy in other countries. China’s investment in clean energy has been a backbone of the global surge, and Europe’s solar boom shows how quickly regional policy and market incentives can rearrange the grid mix.
Politics vs. deployment: a messy tug of war
If the technical and economic tailwinds were strong, the political headwinds were stiff. The second Trump administration moved quickly to roll back federal climate rules, pull the U.S. out of international commitments, and pause or cancel projects — including a stop to several offshore wind developments over security concerns. Regulators and courts have become a second battleground: permitting changes, funding freezes and agency restructurings introduced fresh uncertainty for developers.
The headlines made it easy to assume clean energy would stall. But in many places the industry simply kept building. States, utilities and private buyers still signed contracts for new solar, wind and storage, and automakers kept pushing electric vehicles: roughly 11 million new EVs sold worldwide last year. Even with political friction, industry momentum — and economics — carried a lot of weight.
The seams that could unravel progress
That said, the trajectory is not guaranteed. Several stress points could slow the run:
- Grid limits: Transmission bottlenecks and underinvestment in the grid mean new renewable generation sometimes sits miles away from demand centers. Building lines is slow and politically fraught. As NPR’s coverage noted, power supply constraints are already a limiting factor for big electricity consumers like data centers.
- Rising gas: Utilities facing reliability concerns or round‑the‑clock demand are still leaning on natural gas to provide firm capacity. If investors tilt toward gas for perceived reliability, that could lock in additional emissions for years.
- Permitting and political risk: Pauses on offshore wind, permitting reshuffles and legal fights create a drag on project finance. When investors see more policy risk, they often demand higher returns — and some projects stop altogether.
- Supply chain and material needs: The clean transition needs steel, critical minerals and new manufacturing capacity. The steel industry is making moves away from coal, but changes are gradual. Scaling up hydrogen and low‑emissions steel will take time and money.
What could blunt a slowdown
There are also countervailing dynamics that could keep progress alive. Battery deployment is accelerating, and storage incentives survived recent federal fights better than many expected. Where storage grows, solar and wind become more dispatchable — and therefore more attractive to utilities. State and local policies remain powerful: procurement commitments, renewable portfolio standards and municipal efforts can offset federal rollbacks.
Technological advances matter too. If long‑duration storage, cheaper electrolytic hydrogen, or new nuclear concepts prove commercial at scale, utilities could swap gas for truly low‑carbon firm capacity. Meanwhile, private capital — pension funds and corporate buyers — is still pouring money into renewables because the returns look good over decades.
A delicate middle ground
So here we are: a transition with its foot on the gas and its eyes on the brakes. Clean energy’s growth in 2025 shows momentum that can outpace policy for a while. But maintaining that pace will require solving hard infrastructure and permitting puzzles, keeping costs down, and ensuring reliable backup power — without locking in more fossil fuels.
The year offered equal parts cheer and caution: charts that celebrate measurable gains, and policy moves that remind us how brittle progress can be. If markets and technology continue to push, the grid could grow cleaner than many expected. If political and permitting bottlenecks deepen, the curve could flatten. Either way, the next few years will be decisive for whether this momentum turns into a lasting structural shift.
For readers curious about one component of that shifting landscape — the compute appetite accelerating electricity demand — see reporting on Project Suncatcher and how new AI models are reshaping infrastructure choices, like Microsoft’s recent model rollout that highlights the industry’s growing energy footprint Microsoft Unveils MAI‑Image‑1.