US Builders Are Still Pushing The Solar Power Envelope

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Despite an unfavorable environment in the halls of the White House, the US solar industry keeps finding news ways to send more clean kilowatts into the pipeline. In one particularly interesting development, the leading construction and real estate firm Clayco has jumped into the pool, leveraging its considerable resources to support solar power and energy storage, too.

Builders Love Solar Power

Builders and other real estate stakeholders represent a powerful movement in the US solar industry, because they can integrate property and financing with solar power instead of treating property, finance, and solar into separate silos.

By way of comparison, in the traditional model of solar development, a solar company has to negotiate a property acquisition first, in order to make the installation possible. Integrating those two elements saves time and money while opening up new financial opportunities as well.

One emerging approach is represented by the startup SolaREIT, which specializes in arranging transactions between solar developers and property owners that are seeking to add renewable energy to their holdings. Earlier this year SolaREIT announced a significant expansion of its revolving credit facility, indicating confidence that collaboration between real estate and solar interests has significant growth potential.

Another solution puts the property owner front and center. In the latest development in that area, the full service, design-build real estate and construction firm Clayco has launched a new Power and Energy branch, turning the firepower of its full service business model onto the utility-scale solar power and energy storage market.

More Financial Firepower For Solar

Clayco is no small potatoes. Founded in 1984, the Chicago-based firm logged $7.6 billion in revenue in 2024. With more than 3,800 employees, Clayco aims to propel Power and Energy into a major force in the domestic solar and storage market. “From early planning, engineering, and design through procurement, construction, commissioning, and installation, Clayco Power and Energy will leverage advanced modeling, prefabrication, and field-tested construction expertise to deliver high-performance utility-scale solar projects and distributed commercial battery energy storage systems,” the company announced on March 4.

If you’re wondering why solar and not wind, that’s a good question. In the announcement, Clayco did leave the door open for Power and Energy to apply itself to other energy resources, but the US wind industry has some catching up to do.

While both wind and solar are widely recognized as the fastest, most economical way to introduce more kilowatts into the nation’s electricity profile, a more expansive environment for site selection is among the factors currently favoring solar over wind.

That is reflected in the latest utility-scale capacity addition forecast from the US Energy Information Agency, meaning new generating facilities with a capacity of 1 megawatt or more. EIA anticipates that the US will add 86 gigawatts of new utility-scale generating capacity this year, of which solar will account for 51%. Battery-type energy storage weighs in at a respectable 28% and wind power registers at 14%.

For the record, the figure of 14% is not too shabby considering that natural gas will only account for 7% according to the EIA forecast, while the President’s favorite fossil fuel — coal — is a wipeout. Still, the solar-plus-storage trend is the attention-getter. The bright forecast follows a similarly strong showing last year, and Clayco is among those to anticipate even more opportunities in the years to come.

“Electricity demand is projected to grow 15% to 20% by 2030, driven by the rapid expansion of data centers, domestic manufacturing facilities, transportation electrification needs, and residential growth,” the company observes.

“Much of that demand is being met by newly available renewable power sources, with 85% of all new U.S. electric generating capacity brought online in 2025 comprised of utility-scale solar and battery storage sources,” they add.

Help For Homeowners

The 2026 EIA forecast does not include solar arrays of less than 1 megawatt, but those smaller installations are adding up to big gigawatts, too. Last year, EIA calculated that the nation has amassed a 58-gigawatt roster of distributed solar arrays, including rooftop solar as well as ground-mounted solar panels.

Considering the impact of Trump’s war on the price of natural gas as well as transportation fuels, it will be interesting to see how the domestic market for small-scale solar power reacts, particularly in the area of rooftop solar. New partnerships between warehouse owners and solar developers have already emerged to stimulate activity in the commercial rooftop solar sector, helped along by subscription or lease-type financing that takes the sting out of up-front costs.

The subscription model has become a familiar feature in the residential rooftop solar market as well, and now stakeholders are competing for a share on cost, convenience, and reliability.

One interesting development in that area began to emerge last June, when the solar-plus-storage startup Monalee posted an update on its Artemis software. Monalee launched the tool in 2024 in order to provide its frontline sales team with a rapid, accurate design cost calculator for rooftop solar. The company also raised interest among other solar stakeholders including GoodLeap, Empower Home Services, and Dynamic SLR.

Last year’s announcement was picked up by CleanTechnica, among others, and now Monalee has gone all-in on Artemis. On March 4, the company announced that it has rebranded. Under its new name — Artemis, of course — the company nailed has just nailed down a $6 million round of financing enabling it to expand its business.

“Residential solar, battery, and home‑energy projects still take days to quote and more than 100 days to fulfill, with costly design software and fragmented workflows that slow deals and squeeze margins,” the company notes. “Artemis eliminates that friction by unifying AI‑powered design, embedded financing, and compliance automation in a single operating system, shrinking cycle times from days to seconds.”

“Customers report up to 72% lower software costs and 98% faster turnaround, often seeing 5× higher conversion rates than legacy tools,” they add for good measure.

The software is already available in the US for the use of other solar firms as well as home improvement contractors, financiers, and utilities. Artemis is also preparing for an international launch, so hold on to your hats. After all, energy consumers in the US are not the only ones shouldering the cost of Trump’s war.

Photo: A leading US builder has integrated solar power and energy storage into its business model, helping to keep the nation’s renewable energy momentum going through 2026 and beyond (cropped, courtesy of Clayco).