Conservative voters support solar

Despite the culture war narrative, it appears that conservative voters overwhelmingly support the use of solar energy.

Conservative renewables advocacy group Energy Right recently surveyed 861 voters who identified themselves as conservative on the topic of energy affordability and solutions to stabilizing those prices, including solar PV.

In nearly every survey category, 50 percent of respondents or greater indicated that they would support solar development, especially when it benefited local agriculture, the economy, energy infrastructure and energy pricing. 58 percent said they supported increased solar development, 25 percent opposed it, and 17 percent were unsure.

This tracks with results from a similar poll conducted by First Solar where they polled 800 Republicans, Republican-leaning independents and Trump voters. A slight majority of right-leaning voters — 51 percent— surveyed said they favor the use of utility solar energy, with 30 percent opposing it and 19 percent declining to take a position.

Survey participants were asked about solar development related to its potential for tax revenue generation, how it can be implemented on agricultural land and the ability to curb the cost of electricity. 62 percent said the government should not interfere with a land owner's right to develop solar on their land.

When asked their preference for nearby land development, 47 percent approved of utility solar, 26 percent could accept additional housing construction, 14 percent favored the development of a nearby nuclear reactor, 8 percent approved of natural gas development, and only 5 percent wished to live anywhere near an industrial park.

According to the 2025 Long-Term Reliability Assessment report released January 29 by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), the electric grid faces growing reliability risks over the next decade as demand growth threatens to overwhelm the grid.

The annual reliability assessment serves as a snapshot of grid adequacy over the coming decade. The survey projects that summer peak demand could surge by 224 GW—that's 69 percent more than was projected in 2024. Winter demand could surge even higher, by 245 GW, a 65 percent increase from last year's projection.

According to NERC, compound annual growth rates for summer and winter peak demand are the highest ever projected since tracking started in 1995.

Artificial intelligence, data centers and the digital economy account for most of the projected load growth, but the report also identifies the electrification of large industrial facilities, electrified transportation, cryptomining, heat pump deployment, and demographic trends as "primary demand drivers."

According to NERC's capacity and energy risk assessment—13 of 23 assessment areas will face resource adequacy challenges over the next five years. By 2030, at least five regions could face "high risk": These include: the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), PJM Interconnection (PJM), the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), and the Western Electricity Coordinating Council's (WECC's) Basin and Northwest subregions.

The game of solar "whack a mole" continues as the US Dept of Commerce is nearing the end of its investigation of solar panels imported from India, Indonesia and Laos.

Solar panels from China first faced significant U.S. tariffs in 2012, when the Obama administration imposed anti-dumping and countervailing duties, averaging around 31-36 percent. Chinese manufacturers then moved operations to Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. In 2025 the Commerce Dept found that panels imported from those nations violated the same anti-dumping provisions and imposed tariffs on those panels as well.

So (allegedly) Chinese manufacturers simply moved production to India, Indonesia and Laos. And so it goes.

In 2024 the US imported approximately 56 percent of all panels installed nationwide. The vast majority of these were imported from Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia.

In related news, The United States this week announced that it reached a trade agreement with India that should reduce some of the tariffs placed on Indian imports. Few details were actually provided, but news reports say that the United States is lowering India's export tariff to 18 percent. It was previously as high as 50 percent. It is unclear whether this agreement will affect anticipated solar panel anti-dumping penalties.

A new bill filed in the Missouri Senate on January 7 seeks to suspend all solar project construction through a statewide moratorium until the beginning of 2028.

Introduced and sponsored by Senator Cindy O'Laughlin, a Republican serving rural northeastern Missouri and currently serving as the state body's president pro tempore, the bill would halt construction on all solar projects throughout the state, as well as place a hold on issuing permits for any new solar projects.

The bill is supported by Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe, who took office in early 2025.

Enphase Energy announced that they plan to start manufacturing their IQ Bidirectional EV Charging Platform at volume in Q4 2026 following a series of successful product demonstrations.

The Enphase charger connects to the direct current port of an EV, charging the vehicle, but it is also capable of using the EVs battery to provide home energy backup during grid outages. The bidirectional charger has been tested on U.S. and European EVs .

The system is engineered to work with residential and light-commercial single-phase and three-phase energy systems. It's developed to follow bidirectional standards, including UL 1741 and IEEE 1547 in the United States; and open communication standards such as ISO 15118-20 to support vehicle interoperability and standards-based vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid functionality with compatible vehicles.