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Solar power is becoming a much bigger part of America’s energy story, and nowhere is that more evident than across the MISO region, which stretches from the Midwest all the way south to Louisiana. According to a new BloombergNEF analysis, the region that includes MISO has now overtaken the PJM region as the nation’s largest in terms of electric generating capacity. The MISO-area system reached roughly 230 gigawatts of capacity, compared with 227 gigawatts in the PJM-area system. A major reason for that growth has been the addition of 7.45 gigawatts of solar between April 2024 and March 2025, more than twice the 3 gigawatts added in the PJM region.
What makes this important is that this growth is occurring across states with very different political philosophies. Illinois led the MISO-area solar buildout, but conservative-led Indiana, Arkansas and Missouri followed. That should remind us that electricity generation does not have to be a partisan issue. Solar does not have to replace natural gas, nuclear, hydro or any other reliable generation source to be valuable. It simply needs to be part of an all-of-the-above energy strategy that puts more electrons on the grid at a time when demand is growing faster than we have seen in decades.
That is especially important for Louisiana. Data centers, manufacturing facilities and billions of dollars in announced industrial investment are creating enormous new electricity demands. We need natural gas. We need nuclear power. We need solar, wind and battery storage. And we need the transmission infrastructure necessary to move that electricity where it is needed. MISO itself recorded an all-time solar output peak of 14.1 gigawatts in August 2025, demonstrating that solar is already contributing meaningful power to the system. Nationally, the U.S. Energy Information Administration expects a record 86 gigawatts of new utility-scale generating capacity in 2026, with solar representing 51% of those planned additions.
For Louisiana, this is not about choosing solar over natural gas. It is about choosing more energy. We are part of a regional grid experiencing tremendous growth while our own state is attracting some of the largest industrial and data center investments in the country. If Louisiana wants affordable and reliable electricity while continuing to compete for those investments, we cannot afford to take viable generation resources off the table. Solar can be developed relatively quickly, works alongside our traditional energy resources, creates investment in rural communities and adds much-needed generation to the MISO system. An all-of-the-above strategy means exactly that: natural gas, nuclear, solar, wind, storage and whatever comes next. Louisiana is an energy state, and our opportunity is to produce more of it.
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