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The United States distributed solar sector installed close to 1.6 GW of fresh capacity during the second quarter of 2026, sustaining a consistent pace of behind-the-meter additions. According to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, whose quarterly Big Impact of Small Solar report tracks these figures, solar as a whole represented 55 percent of all new electric generating capacity brought onto the national grid in that quarter once large-scale and small-scale assets are combined.
Solar kept its place as the leading source of new U.S. electricity capacity, yet its proportional share narrowed relative to earlier quarters. Data from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance points to a steep increase in fossil generation entering service as the cause of that dilution, with the second quarter posting larger thermal capacity additions than any other single quarter in the preceding two years.
Even with the pressure created by conventional generation additions and wider market shifts, small-scale systems remain a dependable contributor to national clean energy growth. The 1.6 GW recorded in the quarter underscores how comparatively insulated this segment is from the transmission queue bottlenecks that keep delaying utility projects measured in the hundreds of megawatts.
A major element underpinning the durability of small-scale solar is the swift co-location of battery energy storage systems. Behind-the-meter storage installations crossed a significant mark in the second quarter of 2026, with more than 2.5 GWh of distributed storage capacity brought online across residential, commercial, and community locations.
Analysts in the industry link this expansion in battery integration to changing net metering policy structures, which increasingly favor self-consumption and load shifting rather than direct exports to the grid. Through the combination of solar and local storage, distributed resources deliver essential grid balancing functions and ease congestion on local distribution networks.
With interconnection delays at the utility scale continuing, the steady rollout of small solar and distributed storage assets points to a growing contribution from decentralized generation in serving rising national power demand.
Interactive table based on the Store Companies dataset for this report.
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Major US solar manufacturer
Residential & commercial solar
Former Cree LED business
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Specialty & high-power LEDs
LED technology & solutions
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Residential solar panels
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US operations of Korean parent
3D architecture LEDs
High-quality lighting
High-brightness microdisplays
Disinfection & purification
US crystalline silicon solar
Next-generation tandem cells
Tandem cell technology
Manufacturing equipment
Turnkey production lines
Distributor & assembler
Residential & commercial
Former Philips business
Specialty & horticultural
Military & commercial
Aluminum nitride substrates
Materials for UV LEDs
US division of Kyocera
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