More than 70% of new solar is being built in states that voted for Trump

Filed 38m ago · Via Grist · The Buffoon Desk

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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: David E. Lucas · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

A new Solar Energy Industries Association report finds that states Trump carried in the last election made up eight of the top ten solar-building states in the first half of 2026, and nearly three-fourths of the 11 gigawatts added nationally in the second quarter, a 45% jump from a year earlier. Texas and Florida ranked first and third; Michigan jumped from 23rd to fourth.

SEIA's Tim Pawlenty, a former Republican governor, credits red states' pro-business permitting and available land rather than climate motives, alongside electricity demand from manufacturing and data centers. Yet the same Trump administration has restricted solar on federal land, and Congress ended most federal tax credits as of July 4, 2026, which triggered a rush of pre-deadline construction that inflated the quarter's numbers.

Whether the boom continues without those credits depends heavily on geography, according to University of Michigan's Michael Craig: sunnier states like Texas need the incentives less, while Michigan's growth leans more on state renewable mandates set by its Democratic governor. Rooftop solar, more dependent on the credits, has already begun declining in 2026.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

There's something almost funny about a party spending years talking down solar while its own states build most of it, like a man complaining about his neighbor's garden while quietly buying the same seeds. Turns out cheap land, fast permits and hungry data centers don't care much what anybody said on the campaign trail. The tax credits are gone now, so we'll find out soon enough whether the boom was about sunshine or just about the deadline.

Source: Read the original at Grist → Scored: Fluffing a Duck · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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