States that voted for Trump are leading the country in solar adoption. In recent years, Republican opposition to solar has mounted, with the Trump administration making it more difficult to build solar on federal land and Congress scaling back federal tax credits for the industry. But a new report from the Solar Energy Industries Association has found that states that voted for Donald Trump in the last presidential election counted for eight of the top 10 solar-building states in the country in the first half of the year.
“At least at the macro level, Republican-led and governed states are not only open to but embracing solar energy as a technology,” said Tim Pawlenty, CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association and a former Republican governor of Minnesota.
Altogether, solar construction in Trump-supporting states has buoyed an ongoing explosion in national solar deployment. The country added more than 11 gigawatts of solar power in the second quarter of 2026, an increase of 45% compared to the same period in 2025. States that supported Trump in the last election made up close to three-fourths of that growth.
Texas and Florida, the two largest Trump-supporting states by population, were ranked first and third, respectively. Those Sun Belt states have been consistent leaders in solar construction, as have Indiana, Ohio, and Arizona, which have also remained in the top 10 solar-building states since 2024. Missouri, Arkansas, Michigan, and Utah also reached the top 10 in some, but not all, of those years.
Those red states are fostering solar development through their general pro-business attitude and booming electricity-hungry industries, even if they don’t support solar for climate-related reasons. Republican-leaning states tend to have more available land and easier permitting processes for energy projects, Pawlenty said. That attractive business environment has also drawn electricity-consuming industries, like manufacturing and data centers, to red states, producing demand for quickly constructed, cheap energy sources like solar.
“Red states, as a general proposition, have sort of a pro-build mentality. They want to build things,” Pawlenty said.
But the future for solar in red states is more complicated. After Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, energy companies investing in solar projects and homeowners buying solar for their rooftops received tax credits for their investments. But last year, Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and brought an early end to the credits. Credits expired for most uninitiated solar farms on July 4, 2026. As a result, solar developers rushed to start construction before the deadline, helping create a bump in solar installations in the second quarter of 2026. The lack of tax credits could make solar growth less certain in the future, especially for rooftop solar projects, which have already begun declining in 2026, the solar industry report notes.
The nature of this uncertainty is not the same for all solar-investing, Trump-voting states. While Texas has remained a titan in solar development, earning the top spot in 2024, 2025, and the first half of 2026, other states are just beginning their solar booms. Michigan, a politically mixed state where a majority of voters chose Trump in 2024, reached the top 10 for the first time this year. The state has climbed steadily from 23rd place in 2024 to fourth in the first half of 2026.
Whether Michigan, which lacks Texas’ year-round strong sunlight, can maintain that solar energy growth after the end of federal tax credits is another question, said Michael Craig, an associate professor in the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability. Solar farms may remain economically feasible to build without the credits only in areas with the right weather.
“The economics of solar largely depends on your solar resource,” said Craig. ”The better the resource, I’d say the less important the tax credits are.”
Without federal tax credits, Michigan’s solar industry will likely fall back on state clean energy goals, which create demand for solar by mandating that utilities build renewable power sources. Though Michigan voted for Trump in 2024, the state has a Democratic governor and Democrat-led state Senate. The state established a law that utilities must generate 50% of their power from renewables by 2030. That requirement, in combination with data center electricity demand, is likely a large factor in the state’s rapid solar rise, Craig said.
Nonetheless, some strategists have argued the solar industry needs tax credits less than it needs an easier federal permitting process and continued power demand to support growth. Even if Congress never reinstates the tax credits, those structural factors could push the industry forward, especially because solar requires relatively little time to build compared to other power sources. Regardless of cost, tax credits, or even geography, that speed still counts for something, said Rachel Skaar, communications director for Solar Energy Industries Association.
“Solar and storage can deploy so much faster than other technologies,” Skaar said. “So when we talk about the need for energy right now, solar and storage can provide it.”
This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/energy/more-than-70-of-new-solar-is-being-built-in-states-that-voted-for-trump/. Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to reporting on climate change.
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