By many counts, T1 Energy is a picture of Republicans’ American manufacturing dreams. The growing Texas-based company employs over 2,000 domestic workers, producing tens of thousands of products each day just outside of Dallas, with a new $400 million facility opening in Austin later this year.
But the Trump administration isn’t singing the praises of T1’s growth, as it is with other domestic manufacturers. That’s likely because T1 creates a product that puts it at political odds with the administration’s image of American manufacturing: solar panels.
Since taking office in 2025, President Trump has rolled back policy initiatives that pushed solar manufacturing growth, chiefly removing federal tax credits for solar projects that use domestic products in July. T1, like many solar companies, anticipated a downturn in orders from its utility-grade customers. But despite federal disinvestment in solar manufacturing, demand for energy is pushing investment and growth for solar projects.
“The current administration is not supportive of renewable matters,” said Dennis Wamsted, an energy analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. “They’re very supportive of fossil fuels. That’s the energy market of the past. We are moving away from that particular energy market and the movement would be faster if there was more policy support in Washington.”
Energy demand is growing quickly, fueled in large part by the rapid growth of data centers connected to the artificial intelligence boom. The war in Iran has further driven interest in alternative energy sources, with oil prices surging and natural gas sources blocked. But opportunities for alternative energy supply remain limited, with the exception of solar. In the U.S., there’s a years-long backlog on materials for wind and gas turbines, and nuclear development won’t have an impact for at least a decade, according to energy economists.
“There’s no doubt that there are policy headwinds, but the market is stronger than the policy at the moment and the market wants [solar] to happen because it’s economical,” Wamsted said.
T1’s Dallas facility operates around the clock and assembles nearly 20,000 solar panels each day. With the addition of the Austin facility early next year, the company will produce enough solar cells to generate 7 Gigawatts annually, enough energy to power 7 million homes.
“Our firm belief is that solar is the only energy source that is going to meet AI demands,” said Emily Buczynsk, T1’s communications director. “It’s the cheapest, fastest to deploy and easiest to scale energy source out there.”
But without federal tax credits, American solar manufacturers may lose out to foreign suppliers whose governments subsidize manufacturing.
Globally, China produces the greatest volume of solar panel components at the lowest prices, providing over 95 percent of the world’s polysilicon, one of the essential raw materials for solar cells. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022—a Biden-era bill that invested $369 billion in clean energy and climate solutions—established a tax credit to discount renewable energy projects and provide a bonus credit for using domestic content, making American solar manufacturers more competitive. Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the tax package that Trump signed last year, the renewable energy tax credit and the domestic content bonus will expire in 2028. Utility developers have to have begun construction on a project by July 4, 2026 to benefit from the credit.
“In the immediate, we’re seeing good demand, but what happens after the bonus runs out?” said Rob Gardner, vice president of congressional and regulatory affairs for the Solar Energy Manufacturers for America Coalition (SEMA). “There will be no more tax credit, no incentive to buy American products.”
SEMA represents 18 American manufacturers who contribute to the solar supply chain including wafers, cells and panels and polysilicon. The coalition was created in 2022 to influence federal policy toward a competitive U.S. solar supply chain. Now, with a new administration in Washington, the focus has turned to preserving these measures.
One of the solar industry’s primary challenges has been countering the narrative that clean energy is in opposition with fossil fuels.
“The idea of green and clean versus fossil fuels is bad for everybody; instead, when we just think about energy as energy, that’s when everybody wins,” Buczynski said.
Some experts argue a global supply chain and overseas suppliers do have benefits for domestic manufacturers and the U.S. solar industry as a whole because it promotes innovation, addresses climate needs and lowers costs for the end buyer. A 2022 paper found an entirely domestic solar supply chain would cause prices to jump 20 to 30 percent over 10 years—costs that would get passed to solar installers and their customers—and that the lack of technological learning from global trade could hinder energy development and deployment.
Gang He, one of the paper’s authors and an energy scholar at Baruch College, advocates for an open market that encourages domestic manufacturing through technology cooperation, joint ventures or for international investors to build in the U.S., in turn meeting domestic content requirements.
“Policy should accelerate these processes and not impede or stop it; it cannot stop the market,” He said. “But what I hope is we need to find a way for the government to incentivize and to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy.”
In the meantime, market demand for energy continues to drive solar investment, even with higher manufacturing prices domestically and from international imports, thanks to Trump’s trade war with China.
“Solar is now economic and everybody sees that, and so it’s getting built in places it wasn’t built before,” Wamsted said, pointing to the Midwest and South.
A majority of SEMA’s members are located in rural states, bringing skilled jobs and investment in regions that historically discouraged renewable energy development. T1’s solar module facility, for example, is located in Wilmer, Texas, a town of 7,000 residents about 15 miles from Dallas’ downtown. The 1.3 million square-foot plant employs 1,200 people and pays hourly wages near $20 per hour, double the state’s minimum wage.
Polling shows more Republicans think favorably of solar investments, in part because of its capability to provide energy separate from the grid when paired with battery storage, which signals to Gardner there are opportunities to engage with the administration on its anti-solar position.
“From the perspective of energy independence, it’s an inexpensive way to get energy and will continue to be, so why not build it here?” Gardner said.
