Texas blew away the competition, and California shined brighter than the rest, in generating wind and solar power in 2022.

Climate Central’s WeatherPower report for 2022 says that electricity from wind and solar was up 16% in 2022 compared to 2021. It amounted to more than 680,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity, enough to power 64 million average American homes.

Texas was, by far, the big winner in wind power. Of course, being the largest of the Lower 48 states helps. They made nearly 130 megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity, followed up by Iowa with over 48 MWh. Oklahoma rounded out the top three with 48 MWh.

Wind power generation peaks in the spring and fall as contrasting air masses and stronger weather systems create more wind. On March 29, 2022, wind was the country’s second-biggest energy source.

California led the way in generating solar power, producing over 58 MWh of electricity. Texas shows up in this list, too, coming in at No. 2 with almost 23 MWh. Fittingly, the Sunshine State–Florida–ranked third at more than 13 MWh.

It’s no surprise that summer is the most productive season for solar power. The sun’s most direct rays center around the solstice in mid-June and are strongest in the southern U.S.

While the weather ultimately decides how much wind and solar power we get, Climate Central reports that the country’s capacity to generate electricity from those sources has grown over the years as the costs have come down.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration says that utility-scale wind and power generation–which comes from entities like power companies, not individual homes or businesses–will grow by 35 gigawatts in 2023. That’s a capacity increase of almost 15% from 2022, and much of it will come from solar projects.

Our team of meteorologists dives deep into the science of weather and breaks down timely weather data and information. To view more weather and climate stories, check out our weather blogs section.