diff --git a/docs/sphinx/source/whatsnew/v0.12.1.rst b/docs/sphinx/source/whatsnew/v0.12.1.rst
index 8c8c5d8452..2435ec59bc 100644
--- a/docs/sphinx/source/whatsnew/v0.12.1.rst
+++ b/docs/sphinx/source/whatsnew/v0.12.1.rst
@@ -24,6 +24,10 @@ Documentation
 * Documented how `np.nan` values are handled by :py:func:`~pvlib.spectrum.average_photon_energy`
   (:issue:`2423`, :pull:`2426`)
 
+Requirements
+~~~~~~~~~~~~
+* ``wheel`` is no longer a build dependency. (:pull:`2439`)
+
 Testing
 ~~~~~~~
 
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 6929045b55..2d245cff94 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 [build-system]
-requires = ["setuptools>=61", "wheel", "setuptools_scm>=6.2"]
+requires = ["setuptools>=70.1", "setuptools_scm>=6.2"]
 build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"