Solar energy is booming in the US, with Florida catching up with the industrial powers of Texas and California for the first time.
Despite removing climate change from its official state policy in 2024, Florida added more utility scale solar last year than California, bringing new capacity over 3 gigawatts online.
“This is not a fluke,” said Sylvia Leiva Martinez, senior analyst at Wood Mackenzie. “Florida is now shaping the nation's solar growth.”
The surges are driven by utilities rather than rooftop panels. With Florida Power & Lights alone, it built more than 70% of the state's new solar last year. State regulations allow developers to skip long positioning reviews for projects under 75 megawatts. This reduces construction costs.
“There are no silver bullets,” said Sid Kitson, founder of Babcock Ranch, which was designed to be almost entirely solar-equipped. “But one thing Florida is right is accepted. Here people want solar, and we're proving it works.”
Babcock Ranch ran on its own microgrid and stayed online during Hurricane Ian in 2022, but much of southwest Florida was darkened.
“We didn't lose any electricity, the internet or water,” said Don Bishop, the homeowner there. “It changes what you think about energy.”
Economics is the rest. With rising industrial demand and rising natural gas prices, solar becomes an increasingly cheaper option without subsidies.
“The utility is green so we don't build solar,” Martinez said. “They do it because it's cheap.”
However, new challenges are emerging.
In July, President Trump signed one big beautiful bill. This accelerates the rollback of solar and wind taxes. From 2025 onwards, homeowners will lose federal investment credits. Developers face deadlines and stricter procurement rules.
“It doesn't kill the market,” said Zoe Gaston, an analyst following the Wood Mackenzie solar industry. “But that makes math difficult.”
Analysts now expect rooftop solar installations to fall by 42% in Florida over the next five years. And while utility scales continue to grow, grid constraints are becoming a problem. The utility is pouring and maintaining money on storage, smart infrastructure and grid upgrades.
Babcock Ranch is piloting a new microgrid system to add more resilience. The hope is that other communities can take playbooks and adapt them.
“We've been testing this for years,” Kitson said. “Now it's about scales, showing others that they can do that too.”
The bigger question is whether Florida can maintain this momentum without policy support, and whether it is still leaning heavily towards natural gas.
“Florida has solar power,” said Marc Jacobson, professor at Stanford's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “What's missing is political consistency.”
Watch the video and see how Florida has become a solar leader and what can slow it down.