The US solar industry is in a traditional scaling phase – manufacturing is localizing, utility-scale build-out is the growth engine, interconnection is the bottleneck, and policy continues to be the swing factor. Here’s a succinct, well-sourced overview of today’s market, what’s next and how leading firms paint the picture.

MarketSnapshot

• Installations & outlook. In the first quarter of 2025, the United States exported 10.8 GWdc, a slight dip from the end of calendar year 2024, but still solidly in a multi-year trend that is forecasted to be strong. According to Wood Mackenzie, it is estimated that there will be approximately 199 GWdc of new utility-scale build between 2025 and 2030, which demonstrates that grid-scale is still the primary driver of growth.
  
• Policy tailwinds. The 30% ITC, plus additional adders (e.g., domestic content bonus), is still supporting project economics, and new federal guidance in January 2025 further clarified the domestic content rules.
  
• Near-term risks. Debate in Washington around potential changes to clean-energy tax credits has generated uncertainty for manufacturers and developers in 2025, even if many product pipelines remain strong.

What Drives Project Design Choices

• Trackers are ubiquitous. In US utility-scale PV, single-axis trackers are overwhelmingly preferred (94% of new capacity used single axes in 2022) because they enhance the LCOE by yielding greater production—particularly when used in combination with bifacial modules. Vendors like Array Technologies and their peers lead the way in this market.
  
• Storage co-location. Residential NEM changes (e.g. California NEM 3.0) are pushing more solar-plus-storage projects both behind-the-meter and at community scale mandating different interconnection profiles and engaging with differing revenue streams in a stacked way.
  
• Domestic content strategy. Projects increasingly are designed around qualifying thresholds for domestic steel/iron and manufactured products to reap IRA adders, nudging module, tracker, and BOS supply chains domestically.
  

The Bottleneck: Interconnection and Transmission

The interconnection queues are still and will continue to be the pacing item. The October 2025 Year in Review from Berkeley Lab demonstrates that the queue backlog is still gigantic and materially constraining deployment timing; hence, the DOE had to start the i2X process and roadmap work. For developers and EPCs, this means starting with grid studies earlier in the development process, necessarily adding flexible phasing, and generally designing queues that are friendly.

Companies to Watch and Work With

Qcells EPC: Turnkey Builder with an Established US Manufacturing Footprint

What They Do: Full utility-scale development, EPC, and O&M (and US-made modules!). They are the first ‘turnkey’ full EPC, O&M, and trusted manufacturer who can offer a bankable ‘single-throat-to-choke’ solution.
Why It’s Important Right Now: Qcells has expanded US manufacturing capacity in Dalton, GA (5.1 GW) and is building an integrated Cartersville, GA supply chain (ingots→wafers→cells→modules) aided by a $1.45B DOE loan guarantee. In 2025, Qcells launched EcoRecycle to start processing ~250 MW/year of end-of-life modules—at the forefront of something that can be dubbed ‘circularity’. For developers, this is a credible way to achieve domestic-content adders and mitigate long-term risk.

Pure Power Engineering: Depth in Solar and Storage Design

What they do: Electrical, structural, owner’s engineering, and utility-scale/C&I solar-plus-storage designs at scale, with 130+ in-house engineers and broad PE coverage (which is helpful for multi-state/rural commercial facility rollouts and differences in AHJ criteria)
Where they fit: Design choices made upfront can determine whether you capture IRA adders, ease interconnection and de-risk constructability. Pure Power is also well-positioned for any early technical/permitting heavy phases. 

Castillo Engineering: Utility-Scale Specialists, HV to PV

What they do: 25+ years in solar with 10+ GW of projects; utility-scale PV design; and substation engineering at voltages above 34.5 kV – valuable if queue upgrades will require the project to scope and engineering to be grid-facing. Recent investments to shorten the duration for utility segment exposure are seen in expo meetings, facilitating a burgeoning and partnered conveyor for work; projects requiring quick throughput on the utility side are under the investment target.

Ampacity Renewables (formerly RP Construction Services): Field Execution and Kitted Solutions

What they do: Turnkey construction and balance of system solutions for utility-scale PV, and now a part of Quanta Services. They have delivered in excess of 6GW across the United States and Canada since 2014, and just had a rebrand in Feb 2025 that emphasises their value-added “kitted” field solutions that reduce the schedule and improve repeatability.

Why it matters: Given labour constraints and generally tighter windows to build out solar projects, pre-engineered and pre-kitted solutions can remove weeks from the schedule and support standard QA/QC across a multi-site programme.

Array Technologies: Trackers for Today’s (and Tomorrow’s) Plants

What they do: Single-axis trackers and control systems. Q2 2025 results confirm scale continues, and as of September 2025, Array verified their compatibility with 2,000-V systems to develop higher-voltage plant designs and reduce BOS costs.

Why it matters: The mechanical flexibility of trackers is standard in US utility PV, so vendor choice affects yield, uptime, wind performance, and eligibility for domestic content—an important consideration in IRA economics. 

Future for Solar

1. Domestic-content-qualified utility PV & PV+Storage
   Match US-made modules/trackers to compliant steel and manufactured products to attain ITC adders – in particular, states in the MISO, SPP, and PJM regions where land and transmission have room. Partner stacks like Qcells EPC (modules + EPC) and Array (trackers) have made getting compliant easier.
   
2. Grid-friendly designs that clear queues
   Design partners (Pure Power, Castillo) can help right-size interconnection, stage buildouts, and address substation scope, which often unlocks CODs earlier.
   
3. Execution at scale
   Construction partners (Ampacity) who package BOS and allow for standardised fieldwork, mitigate weather risk and shorten schedules, which provides a competitive advantage for developers accelerating through PTC / ITC detriments or regulatory offtake milestones.
   
4. Residential & community solar with storage
   NEM reform (e.g., California NEM 3.0) has been triggering batteries, leading to rising attachment rates and controlling strategies in Time-of-Use markets. 

Summary

In spite of policy noise and grid constraints, the U.S. solar market remains in structurally strong form heading into 2025. Utility-scale PV (with even more storage) should remain the predominant form of new capacity through 2030, and the players that can (1) design for incentives and interconnection, (2) normalize field execution, and (3) take advantage of domestic supply chains will be the most successful. Teams that combine Qcells EPC (modules + complete EPC package), Pure Power Engineering and Castillo Engineering (front-end, grid-facing engineering), Ampacity (industrialised construction), and Array Technologies (bankable trackers) can compress project schedules and potential bankability in the next cycle.