The Trump administration has made it a national imperative to reshore manufacturing and technology development. Nowhere is that more evident than Texas where new investments in manufacturing solar panels and large-scale batteries are taking place. Surging demand for electricity and the now obvious insecurity of global supply chains for oil and gas are driving the investment forward.
Space X, fresh off its initial public offering, is joining the game with a 10-GW solar factory. SEG Solar is opening at 4 GW facility near Houston. Near Austin, T1 Energy is investing more than $400 million to build an integrated manufacturing plant with annual payroll of more than $100 million.
U.S. tariffs on imported solar panels and associated materials have created the economic opportunity for investors to profitably manufacture solar panels domestically and consolidate the supply chain. With that comes less dependence on foreign suppliers and fewer market disruptions.
Energy security is critical for the country. The military has been at the forefront of transitioning to renewable energy resources. The 2021 grid failure in Texas was not just catastrophic for homes and businesses, but it took down operations at some of the largest military installations in the country. Solar and batteries are taking the lead in building a resilient grid.
Developers in Texas lead the nation in utility scale solar installations and generation. With more than 39 Gigawatts of installed capacity, solar generated electricity in Texas provides up to 40% of the load during the day. That load includes charging the nation’s largest fleet of utility scale batteries which has expanded from virtually zero three years ago to more than 20 Gigawatts of short duration capacity.
Speed to market is another consideration with projected AI data center growth across potentially doubling or tripling electricity demand in some regions. New natural gas power plants face long lead times of more than five years for the critical natural gas turbines. Microsoft, Meta, Apple, Google, Claude, and others cannot wait that long. And while it is one thing to restart a reactor at Three Mile Island, it is yet another to build one’s own power plants to relieve the strain on an already aged electric infrastructure. At a time when the nation is focusing on electricity affordability, solar farms and batteries are the lowest marginal cost producers. Indeed, the 1.3 GW Samson Solar Energy Center in Texas is expected to have only twelve fulltime employees. The combining of agriculture and livestock grazing with solar farms, a practice called agrivoltaics, counters complaints that solar farms may be reducing productive farm and ranch lands. In California, a much larger 200-square mile, 21 GW solar farm is under development.
The reshoring of solar and battery technology that was first developed in the U.S. completes a circle of technology development and exploitation. U.S. energy dominance will not just be limited to the production of natural gas and oil. With global population growth expected to be more than 3 billion over the next 40 years, it’s a growing market that the U.S. cannot afford to miss. Affordable and reliable electricity is a necessary key to the future.