To claim that 2025 in the United States has been one for the history books may be the understatement of the year. So many unprecedented things have happened, that historians will have no shortage of harrowing lessons to be learned from this era.

In the clean energy space, the Trump administration launched attack after attack to slow down the clean energy in favor of fossil fuels, killing projects, investments, and jobs. By rescinding clean energy funding, pushing to abolish tax credits, coordinating across the administration to interfere with wind and solar, and so much more, they’ve set us up for bitter harvests for years to come.

And yet…

Clean energy is strong. And in 2025, it showed its strength in some really notable ways, as momentum, economics, policies, and people carried clean energy progress forward, despite it all. And it seems all the more important to celebrate it this year.

So, here are clean energy bright spots worthy of resounding cheers.

One pillar of progress has been growth in renewable energy capacity, for more clean electricity and all the other benefits clean energy brings. And one clear shining star for 2025 is the US solar sector:

Energy storage was another fount of progress in 2025, with installations for the year projected to be more than 50% higher than in 2024, led by Texas, California, and Arizona.

All told, says the American Clean Power Association, 2025 looks “firmly on pace to surpass 2024 as the biggest clean power deployment year in history.”

Where solar, storage, and other clean energy technologies really shine is in what they make possible in electricity markets around the country. Some examples:

Though the challenges were unprecedented for offshore wind, 2025 also brought noteworthy happenings in that space. Construction progressed on the next generation of projects, aimed at serving Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, and Virginia, and several large-scale ones should reach full power in 2026 (if I didn’t just jinx it…). In service in Virginia to aid the work is the Charybdis, the brand-new wind turbine installation vessel that is the first built in the United States (Texas). Virginia’s offshore wind project will be one of the world’s largest when completed next year, capable of producing enough energy for more than 600,000 Virginian households.

Clean energy’s progress despite all that the Trump administration threw at it is notable, and it seems important to celebrate those accomplishments as we go into the new year.

As some of the Trump administration’s spurious excuses to halt under-construction offshore wind projects failed to stand up to legal scrutiny, the importance of offshore wind for economies—not just as a source of clean electrons—was even clearer than usual in the range of voices pushing back and speaking out in opposition to the administration’s monkeying. Those included labor

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