America is experiencing an energy boom that is transforming the economy and powering technologies critical for national and economic security. Production of oil and gas is at record highs. Nuclear power is being commercialized again after a generation of stagnation. And utility-scale solar power has quietly become the fastest-growing addition to electricity capacity. In 2025, solar power added 32.7 gigawatts to grid capacity, accounting for almost the entire year’s capacity increase.
In comparison, natural gas added a net 3.1 gigawatts, coal-fired electricity subtracted 6.2 gigawatts due to retirements, and non-grid rooftop solar added 6.3 gigawatts, part of which reduces demand on the grid.
Adding enough affordable electricity for homes and businesses requires three steps: major increases in all sources of energy production; advances in U.S. manufacturing, raw materials, and grid maintenance; and shorter delays in connecting new capacity to the grid. Speed to the grid is vital to keep pace with surging demand from artificial intelligence data centers, manufacturing, and electric vehicles.
Speedier connections matter because financing depends on electricity sales through the grid. Permitting delays present a major obstacle across the entire energy system. Connection delays act like an additional tax on production. Every month and year of delay costs billions of dollars.
Solar capacity is vital because it can add large amounts of electricity to the grid faster than conventional sources. It will not replace natural gas or nuclear power, but readily deployable power can’t be left sitting in an interconnection queue. Every viable project can serve new factories and data centers while easing pressure on household electricity bills.
An astonishing $1.1 trillion to $1.5 trillion in infrastructure projects is held up in the permitting process. That’s electricity that isn’t being generated, roads that aren’t being built, and manufacturing plants that aren’t coming online. One estimate shows that permitting delays cost U.S. manufacturers close to $8 billion every year.
Solar power illustrates the costs of permitting delays. Projects seeking to connect to the grid now spend an average of five years waiting in interconnection queues, while only about 1 in 7 make it through. In one of the country’s largest grid regions, solar projects connected in 2025 waited an average of eight years.
Solar faces three binding constraints. First, we are assembling panels faster than we can make their components. Domestic cell manufacturing capacity is still only around 11 gigawatts (versus 70 gigawatts of assembly capacity), and wafer and polysilicon capacity lag even further behind.
Second, solar manufacturing capacity is growing faster than the interconnection system can absorb, which can leave finished hardware warehoused while projects wait years for connections. A key to deepening the solar supply chain is clearing the permitting and interconnection backlog holding back American solar deployment.
Third, the U.S. grid cannot expand quickly enough to use new electricity capacity efficiently. Demand for generator step-up transformers has nearly quadrupled since 2019, but copper has become a binding constraint. Copper is essential to the grid, but new domestic mines take a decade or more to permit and build, and the smelting supply chain will take almost as long to create.
China has spent two decades becoming the dominant global player in solar manufacturing, giving it a huge lead in manufacturing innovation and worldwide deployment. Deepening the U.S. solar supply chain is a national security imperative. To reduce dependence on China for solar components and technology, we need carefully designed tariffs and incentives that enable the entire solar supply chain to flourish in America. New incentives will be needed that target the domestic production of critical components of solar panels, utility transformers, and other segments of the energy infrastructure. China will use its scale to block competition. America will need to use all available tools to break out of solar dependency.
We need nationwide permitting reform to expand the grid and connect more capacity. Government agencies need to simplify the process and enforce deadlines so reviews don’t drag on. Litigation reform can help push back against meritless lawsuits that slow permitting.
Focusing on solar, we need interconnection reform that actually clears the queue instead of just reshuffling it. Mining and materials policy needs to facilitate domestic production of polysilicon, wafers, and copper so the supply chain can deepen. Alongside permitting reform, we need serious, sustained investment in workforce training for the jobs solar production needs — cell and wafer technicians, electricians, linemen. And we need enough regulatory certainty that manufacturers will bet billions of dollars in long-lead-time capital on made-in-America solar technology.
In sum, to strengthen the all-of-the-above energy boom, we need permitting reform, rapid increases in the whole solar supply chain, and, in the near term, fast connections to the grid. Our biggest obstacle is our permitting queue, which undercuts the rest of the supply chain. Let’s fix that as quickly as we can.
David Malpass is vice chairman of American Global Strategies. He served as the president of the World Bank Group from 2019 to 2023. He is also a former undersecretary of the Treasury for international affairs, deputy assistant treasurer under President Ronald Reagan, and deputy assistant secretary of state under President George H.W. Bush.