US solar steps up: the Q3 2026 Solar Asset Mapper release

The US added 10 GW of detected solar capacity in Q3 2026, the most outside China, while Egypt's grew 10% as major new solar and storage plants came online.

Data

Renewables

Summary

TZ-SAM now tracks 111,619 solar facilities across 195 countries and territories and 1,443 GW of detected capacity, with quarterly additions picking up to 60 GW (4.4%) from 52 GW in Q2

The US added 10 GW of detected capacity, its largest quarterly addition this year, as developers build out projects safe-harboured ahead of federal tax credit deadlines.

Egypt's detected capacity grew 10.4% to 3.4 GW, mostly from a new 276 MW detection where AMEA Power is building its 1 GW Abydos 2 solar and battery plant, helping Africa stay the fastest-growing region for a fourth consecutive quarter.

The global picture

Global solar growth picked up again this quarter. TZ-SAM, our global, asset-level solar dataset built using planetary-scale machine learning, detected 1,443 GW of solar capacity across 111,619 facilities in Q3 2026, up 60 GW on the previous quarter. That 4.4% increase is faster than Q2 (3.9%) but below Q1 (6.8%). All figures in this release describe detected solar capacity according to TZ-SAM, which covers installations of 1 MW or more and excludes rooftop and small distributed solar.

Around 1,717 additional facilities were detected this release, covering 1,677 km², an area larger than Greater London. Montserrat recorded its first detection, taking TZ-SAM's coverage to 195 countries and territories.

Three countries account for 65% of this quarter's additions: China (23 GW), the US (10 GW), and India (7 GW). Excluding China, detected capacity grew 4.8%, the same pace as in Q2.

China's detected additions picked up from 16 GW in Q2 to 23 GW (3.8%). That is still well below the 38 GW detected in Q1, and China accounts for nearly two-thirds of the shortfall. Official figures point the same way. China's National Energy Administration reported 14.1 GW of new solar in July, up 28% year on year, and 13.6 GW in September. Even so, installations for the first nine months of 2026 remain 54% below the same period of 2025.

The US steps up

TZ-SAM detects 195 GW of solar capacity in the US in Q3 2026, up 10 GW (5.4%) on Q2. That is the country's largest quarterly addition this year, second only to China, and a sixth of all detected additions worldwide.

The surge matches what the industry is reporting. Wood Mackenzie and the Solar Energy Industries Association found that US utility-scale installations reached 9.6 GW in Q2 2026, up 61% year on year. Developers built out safe-harboured project pipelines ahead of federal tax credit deadlines, with Texas, Arizona, and Michigan leading. The 4 July 2026 deadline for projects to begin construction has now passed, and projects that missed it must be placed in service by 31 December 2027 to qualify.

The surge matches what the industry is reporting. Wood Mackenzie and the Solar Energy Industries Association found that US utility-scale installations reached 9.6 GW in Q2 2026, up 61% year on year. The figures are not directly comparable, since industry data counts grid connections and satellite detection lags construction, but both show the same trend. Developers built out safe-harboured project pipelines ahead of federal tax credit deadlines, with Texas, Arizona, and Michigan leading. The 4 July 2026 deadline for projects to begin construction has now passed, and projects that missed it must be placed in service by 31 December 2027 to qualify.

TZ-SAM’s Q3 data captures that pipeline being built. What comes after it is less certain. Wood Mackenzie expects annual US additions to stay broadly flat at around 44 GW, but flags permitting and the post-tax-credit transition as significant headwinds. Future satellite data will show whether projects keep coming once the credits fall away.

Spotlight: Egypt's summer of solar

TZ-SAM detects 3.4 GW of solar capacity in Egypt in Q3 2026, up 10.4% on Q2 and 30% since Q4 2025. Egypt is Africa's second-largest market by detected capacity after South Africa, and contributed more than a fifth of the continent's detected additions this quarter.

The timing matters. Egypt met a record peak electricity demand of 40.2 GW on 12 August without returning to load-shedding, but leaned heavily on imported fuel to do so. Liquefied natural gas imports reached 7.94 million tonnes in the first seven months of 2026, more than double the 3.4 million tonnes a year earlier. The Iran crisis has disrupted supply through the Strait of Hormuz. Solar that displaces gas-fired generation directly cuts that import bill.

Most of this quarter's growth comes from one new site. TZ-SAM has detected 276 MW of new solar capacity in the Benban area of Aswan Governorate, about 1 km east of the Luxor–Aswan highway. That is where AMEA Power is building Abydos 2, a 1 GW solar plant with 600 MWh of battery storage. The project began trial operations in early September and is coming online in phases, so this release captures a site still being completed. View the detected site in TZ-SAM's explorer here.

Satellite data can also get there first. Near Nag Hammadi in Qena Governorate, Scatec's Obelisk plant pairs 1.1 GW of solar with a 100 MW/200 MWh battery, which the company calls Africa's largest hybrid solar and battery installation. TZ-SAM sees its first phase as built in satellite imagery from 28 September 2025, nearly five months before that 561 MW phase began commercial operation in February, and estimates 534 MW at the site. The 564 MW second phase reached commercial operation on 12 August, the same day Egypt set its demand record. View Obelisk in TZ-SAM's explorer here.

Detected capacity at both sites is below their nameplate figures, as detection reflects what is visible and complete in satellite imagery at the time, and capacity is estimated from the size and location of each site. The rest of Abydos 2 and Obelisk's second phase may appear in later releases.

Egypt is targeting 11.2 GW of installed renewable capacity by the end of 2026, up from 9.5 GW in July. With more large solar and storage plants due over the next two years, TZ-SAM offers a way to track that buildout site by site, independently of official reporting.

Regional trends

Asia remains dominant with 906 GW of detected capacity and 60% of this quarter's additions. India added 7 GW, but its growth has slowed for a second consecutive quarter, from 10.9% in Q1 to 8.9% in Q2 and 6.0% in Q3. JMK Research reports the same direction for utility-scale installations, which fell from 12.1 GW in Q1 to 6.9 GW in Q2 and 5.4 GW in Q3 2026. Elsewhere in Asia, Turkey passed 25 GW, the Philippines passed 5 GW, and Indonesia passed 1 GW.

Europe grew 4.5% to 221 GW. Spain extended its lead with nearly 50 GW, Greece passed 10 GW, and Bulgaria passed 5 GW. Ireland (12.6%), Lithuania (11.8%), and Latvia (9.6%) posted some of the region's fastest growth.

North America grew 5.2% to 218 GW, the fastest of the three largest regions, narrowing Europe's lead to 2.2 GW from 3.6 GW in Q2. Beyond the US, Guatemala grew 32.6%, and Trinidad and Tobago almost tripled its detected capacity, albeit from small bases.

South America grew 3.4% to 60 GW, its slowest growth in this year's releases. Brazil's detected additions slowed from 1.8 GW to 1.2 GW, whilst Peru passed 2 GW.

Africa was the fastest-growing region for a fourth consecutive quarter, up 7.7% to 20 GW. Alongside Egypt, South Africa grew 5.4% to 8.5 GW, and Zambia's detected capacity grew 57.8% to 0.6 GW. Zambia is diversifying away from drought-hit hydropower: state utility ZESCO doubled the Chisamba plant to 200 MW in July, and the 136 MW Itimpi II plant was switched on in May.

Oceania grew 2.8% to 19 GW, the slowest of any region, as Australia's detected additions slowed to 0.5 GW.

Country-level highlights

The global top 10 by detected capacity has not changed all year.

Just outside the top 10, Saudi Arabia climbed two places to 13th with 14.7 GW (5.6%), overtaking South Korea and Vietnam. Turkey's 1.6 GW of additions was the fifth-largest of any country. Among smaller markets, Iran grew 25.6% to 3.2 GW, Kyrgyzstan grew 38.0% to 0.4 GW, and Tajikistan's detected capacity rose from under 0.01 GW to 0.13 GW.

Using TZ-SAM data

By tracking both the number of utility-scale assets and the estimated capacity of those assets, TZ-SAM data can show how macroeconomic trends and policy decisions affect solar deployment and the broader energy transition. The Solar Asset Explorer is an interactive web interface for exploring TZ-SAM data, offering clickable polygons with key asset details and the raw satellite imagery behind the detections.

TZ-SAM data is published retrospectively. TZ-SAM users who download TZ-SAM through this form and opt in to updates have the data delivered directly to their inbox.

The TZ-SAM Q3 2026 dataset is open access under a Creative Commons licence for non-commercial use.

TZ-SAM is built and maintained by Mason Phillpott, Senior Data Scientist; Joe O'Connor, Head of Machine Learning; Max Santos, Data Scientist; and Michael Guzzardi, Senior Platform Product Manager. Insights and communications by Hannah Brennan, Communications and Marketing Manager.

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