Summary - Floating Solar in US 2026. Online registration by Cvent

Floating solar sector has come a long way in the United States ever since the first installation in 2007 in California. The market for floating solar has expanded considering the vast potential, increasing demand for clean energy, as well as its prospects of co-location with existing hydropower plants. Most importantly, floating solar has become an economically attractive option to generate solar power without competing for land.

According to NREL researchers, floating solar can alone generate about 50 per cent of the solar energy needed to decarbonize the country’s electric grid by 2050. Thus, there is a now an increasing demand from utilities and municipal agencies to diversify their solar portfolio through floating solar installations on underutilized water bodies. Although smaller than projects in Asia and Europe, the size and scale of floating solar projects is increasing in the United States and there is also a growing interest in offshore and nearshore floating solar segments. However, clear policy support and regulatory visibility is required to further boost the growth in this space.

Realizing the immense opportunity in the floating solar sector, REGlobal is organizing the Floating Solar in US conference at Jay Conference Center, Fifth Avenue, New York on July 22, 2026. This conference will bring together policymakers, regulators, solar power developers, utilities, technology providers, manufacturers, grid operators, water authorities, permitting bodies, researchers, and industry experts to discuss the potential, growth trends, policy interventions, developers’ plans, permitting and grid concerns, technology trends, execution and O&M solutions, financing landscape and outlook for the emerging floating solar sector in the United States.