Although it still accounts for a relatively small share of U.S. electricity generation, solar power has overtaken coal for the first time, thanks to massive investments in new installations and despite the fact that solar power is weakened by air pollution from fossil fuels. According to a June 2026 report from the Solar Energy Industries Association, solar energy accounted for 60% of all new electricity generation capacity added in the first quarter of this year. Currently, the largest solar farm in the United States is Edwards & Sanborn Solar + Energy Storage, located in Kern County, California, in the Mojave Desert.
Built between 2021 and 2024, the massive solar farm is made up of more than 1.9 million panels and spans 4,660 acres of land, including portions of Edwards Air Force Base, and has a capacity of 864 MWdc (megawatts of direct current), plus 3,287 MWh (megawatt hours) of battery storage. That makes Edwards & Sanborn the nation’s largest solar and storage farm in terms of overall capacity, although it is physically smaller than Orion Solar Belt in Texas, which primarily produces power for Google’s data centers rather than U.S. homes.
According to NASA, Edwards & Sanborn Solar + Energy Storage has the largest battery storage system in the world. This is particularly important for a solar farm, as it allows it to reliably deliver stored energy at night or during bad weather. The battery capacity also prevents waste. After all, being able to produce a lot of electricity doesn’t mean much if that energy isn’t going anywhere. Edwards & Sanborn has a maximum interconnection capacity of 1,300 MW (or 1.3 GW), with energy flowing into the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) grid to power homes and businesses, including Starbucks.
How America’s Largest Solar Farm Compares to the Rest of the World
While Edwards & Sanborn Solar + Energy Storage is impressive, it’s quite small compared to the installations you’ll find in Asia and the Middle East. China’s largest solar farm, which has quietly changed the desert around it, is the Gonghe Photovoltaic Park (also known as Talatan Solar Park). The massive facility covers 162 square miles of what was a sparsely populated desert atop the world’s highest plateau and has a capacity of up to 16.9 GW — not megawatts — which is enough to power every home in Chicago.
Other impressive solar farms that take advantage of the vast sunny deserts include the Bhadla Solar Park in India, which has a capacity of 2.2 GW and spans over 21.6 square miles, making it the largest in the country. There is also the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in the United Arab Emirates, located just outside Dubai and covering approximately 30 square miles. This facility has a capacity of 3.7 GW, with a goal of reaching 5 GW by 2030.
Edwards & Sanborn Solar + Energy Storage’s battery capacity leaves room for expansion, but it may not be the largest solar farm in the United States for long. Mammoth Solar Farm in northwest Indiana has a planned capacity of 1.3 GW spread across its three facilities, two of which are already operational, producing a total of 700 MW. Construction on the latest and largest project, Mammoth Central, began last year and is expected to begin operating in 2027. U.S. projects like this may seem tiny compared to many international projects, but getting developers to compete for the title of largest solar farm in the United States can only be a boon for clean energy as a whole.
