Clean energy's wildest year yet? The biggest wins and losses of 2025

What a year 2025 was for clean energy, full of big wins and challenging setbacks. We saw thousands of Americans take their energy into their own hands by installing solar and storage systems. But we also saw electric bills hit all-time highs, the federal solar tax credit expire, and major policy shifts that left many wondering if clean energy's future was at risk.

Keep reading or tune in for a look back at our first year of Plugged In and the biggest clean energy stories of 2025 we covered on the show.

The U.S. started 2025 with a new administration, which meant big questions about clean energy's future. In January, an Executive Order created a 90-day freeze on funding for the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), putting many clean energy incentives in limbo. However, with widespread bipartisan support for residential solar, advocates held out hope that it wouldn't come under attack.

But in May, a proposed House bill aimed to eliminate the 30% residential solar investment tax credit (ITC) a decade ahead of schedule. We spoke with Liam Madden, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, solar energy professional, and small business owner in Vermont, about the implications this would have:

“Removing public policy initiatives overnight in very short time frames, I think, is harmful to families, communities, business, and the American energy ecosystem," Madden told us.

EnergySage and others in the industry went to Washington D.C. twice to advocate for keeping the credit, but on July 4, Congress passed the Big Beautiful Bill, ending the ITC a decade early.

As a small bright side, the looming deadline encouraged thousands of Americans to go solar before year's end, creating a surge in installations and keeping small solar businesses busy through 2025.

In June 2025, the average price of electricity in the U.S. hit 19¢ per kilowatt-hour—a new record high, up 32% from five years earlier. Nearly 80 million Americans struggled to pay their utility bills, and experts warned that prices would continue rising.

The problem isn't the cost of generating electricity. When we spoke with Jigar Shah, an entrepreneur and podcaster who was formerly the Director of the Loans Program at the Department of Energy, he told us it's the utility delivery charges that have “been going haywire.”

“Distribution used to be 20%, today, it's 50% of your bill,” said Jigar.

The issue stems from the fact that much of our power grid was built in the 1960s and 70s. Since then, the U.S. population has more than doubled, we're using significantly more electricity, and power-hungry AI data centers are adding unprecedented strain to an already outdated system.

But there's more to the story. A report by the Energy and Policy Institute revealed that while millions of Americans can't afford their monthly bills, CEOs of the largest publicly owned utilities earn between $17 and $33 million annually.

“Utility spending has been out of control for years and years and years,” said Brad Heavner, Executive Director of the California Solar and Storage Association (CALSSA). “It's really criminal—in some cases, we've paid them to make upgrades and fix transmission towers, and they haven't done it.”

Some investor-owned utilities have blamed homes with solar panels for rising rates, but research shows the opposite is true. Shah said that while there’s some cost shift involved when people go solar, it's “far smaller than what people are suggesting.”

Heavner argues that homes with solar aren't increasing costs for other customers—they're actually helping reduce strain on the grid. Research shows rooftop solar saved California ratepayers $1.5 billion in 2024 alone. Heavner said the real issue is that distributed solar generation threatens utility profit margins.

 “People are catching on to that fact, and the data is pretty clear how much they’ve increased their spending,” Heavner told EnergySage. “To deflect attention away from them, they’ve come up with this elaborate ‘cost shift’ story saying solar customers are to blame.” 

In 2025, we saw record-breaking severe weather, including wildfires, blizzards, heat waves, tornadoes, and flooding. These devastating events made energy resilience more critical than ever.

Energy resilience—the ability to keep your power on when the grid goes down—became a top priority for homeowners. From fully net-zero houses to homeowners with simple solar-plus-battery setups, thousands of Americans invested in backup power systems in 2025.

We spoke with content creator Matt Ferrell, who gave us a virtual tour of his net-zero home, complete with a solar panel system large enough to cover all of his family’s energy needs, plus back-up battery storage to keep the place running during power outages. Ferrell told us the investment is paying off financially, but his decision to install batteries went well beyond that.

“It's that sense of security for my family knowing that we won't have spoiled food in the fridge, that we don't have to worry about that kind of stuff. To me, that sense of relief makes it all worthwhile,” said Ferrell. “It's hard to put a price on that.”

Before the ITC was out of play, we saw some (more) major solar companies fall to the wayside: Major residential solar provider Sunnova filed for bankruptcy in June, as did solar lending giant Mosaic. Solar company PosiGen followed suit in November. Many large solar companies unraveled due to unsustainable business models heavily dependent on the federal tax credit.

However, small and mid-sized installers thrived throughout 2025, proving that solid business fundamentals matter more than size.

The bright spot? American-made solar boomed. In just eight years, America jumped from 14th place to 3rd place globally in solar manufacturing capacity. The U.S. now produces enough solar technology to meet nearly all domestic demand, with manufacturing facilities in 41 states and more on the way.

The federal electric vehicle tax credit was eliminated in September, dealing another blow to EV adoption in America—the nation continues to lag behind other countries in transitioning away from gas vehicles.

Much of the resistance to EVs stems from outdated information or misconceptions perpetuated by traditional automotive marketing.

"I’ve talked to so many people who say, 'I would never drive one,’ ‘They're horrible,’ ‘Don't they catch on fire?'” said Jonny Lieberman, host of the YouTube show Driving with Jonny, where he test drives various cars. “Every time one of those is brought up, it just strikes me as propaganda by Chevron, Shell, or the petroleum industry.”

EV concerns around range, charging infrastructure, and reliability are increasingly being addressed as technology improves and more public charging stations are installed. Despite the policy setback, EV infrastructure continues to expand.

“In 2025, we have more chargers that have been installed, high-speed public chargers, than ever before. And in 2026, we'll have even more than 2025," said EV advocate Tom Moloughney, host of the YouTube Show State of Charge.

While not new information, 2025 was a year when Americans seemed to gain a better understanding of the health risks associated with common household appliances fueled by fossil fuels. For example, gas stoves emit carbon monoxide, methane, benzene, and nitrogen dioxide—toxins linked to various breathing issues when inhaled at high levels.

However, 60% of Americans continue to use natural gas for cooking, heating, and drying clothes. Even though recent technology improvements are making cleaner alternatives more attractive than ever: Modern induction stoves and heat pumps offer superior efficiency—heat pumps are up to four times more efficient than gas furnaces—while providing a smaller carbon footprint and potentially lower energy bills.

It appears the clean energy transition has even reached Hollywood. Back in February, in the midst of awards season, EnergySage called out Hollywood for its negative portrayal of clean energy in movies and TV shows, even writing an open letter to Hollywood urging the Academy to use its platform to normalize clean energy through film.

But, to end the year on a high note, we want to take a moment to praise Netflix's new holiday movie, Merry Little Ex-Mas. It does a great job featuring solar panels, batteries, heat pumps, and EVs as normal, non-controversial household features. A small step, but progress nonetheless.

While 2025 brought us a year of absurd electric bills, a solution to rising electric rates and grid blackouts continues to emerge: A shift to local energy.

What does that mean? Each neighborhood makes and uses its own electricity; it’s called “distributed generation.” Microgrids, or small energy systems—like solar panels, wind turbines, and generators—that produce electricity close to where it's used are (slowly) gaining traction across the nation. These systems reduce pressure on the main grid while providing protection from blackouts.

“We’ve been piloting the way in which we should do this for 30 years,” said Jigar Shah. “What utilities need to do is to figure out how to help work with customers to say, 'Hey, we need you to opt into load flexibility… in a way that isn't noticeable to you’…and that requires cultural change.”

If 2025 taught us anything, it’s that clean energy is about more than environmental responsibility; it's about taking control of our power, saving money, creating jobs, and improving our health.

Despite setbacks, we saw innovation, resilience, and Americans refusing to give up on a cleaner, more independent energy future. Solar energy remains financially beneficial even without federal incentives.

“This still just makes bottom line sense in all kinds of ways, including not a small thing that you're helping prevent the destruction of the planet that we happen to live on,” said climate activist Bill McKibben.

Energy storage technology continues advancing, and local energy generation offers solutions to grid reliability issues. The question isn't whether clean energy will survive—it's how it will grow and evolve in 2026 and beyond, and whether you'll be a part of it.