{"id":6336,"date":"2016-11-10T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-11-10T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.portal.solar.com\/learn\/what-trumps-presidency-means-for-the-solar-industry\/"},"modified":"2019-11-13T23:17:55","modified_gmt":"2019-11-13T23:17:55","slug":"what-trumps-presidency-means-for-the-solar-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/what-trumps-presidency-means-for-the-solar-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"What Trump&#8217;s Presidency Means for the Solar Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The election of Donald Trump to the office of President of the United States is expected to have a profound impact on the future of environmental and renewable energy policy in America. Trump has suggested that climate change is a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/265895292191248385\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">hoax perpetuated by the Chinese to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Despite this, the Pew Research Center found that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/fact-tank\/2016\/10\/31\/clinton-trump-supporters-deeply-divided-over-use-of-fossil-fuel-energy-sources\/\">84% of Trump supporters favor expanding solar energy production<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. So what kinds of policy can we expect regarding solar over the next four years?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Clean Power Plan and the Paris Agreement Will Be Challenged<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">President-Elect Trump has selected Myron Ebell to lead his Environmental Protection Agency transition team. Ebell is currently the director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank that rejects the idea of human-caused global warming. He is a climate skeptic to say the least. Ebell considers the Clean Power Plan, which requires states to cut carbon emissions from fossil fuel power plants, to be illegal and has said on multiple occasions that the Paris climate agreement is an unconstitutional overreach of legislative power. We can expect Trump and Ebell to do everything in their power to undermine or repeal these agreements and policies, thus increasing the usage of fossil fuels for energy generation. That being said, the U.S. Energy Information Administration still predicts that 60 gigawatts of Coal energy generation capacity will be retired by 2030 and renewable capacity will continue to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/forecasts\/aeo\/MT_electric.cfm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">grow by 4% per year until 2040 without the Clean Power Plan in effect<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. In much of the country, the levelized cost of energy for solar is already below coal without government subsidy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>New Energy Research and Development May Lose Funding<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The Department of Energy under the Trump Administration is expected to curb research and development funding for renewable technologies set up under Ernest Moniz. Greentech Media notes that there will likely be a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.greentechmedia.com\/articles\/read\/the-department-of-energy-under-president-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">massive &#8220;brain drain&#8221;<\/a> <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">under Trump\u2019s Department of Energy. It is difficult to imagine scientists working under an energy secretary that denies climate change. Fortunately, the DOE\u2019s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and Advanced Research Projects Agency have bipartisan support. Since changes to the DOE budget have to go through the legislature, these programs will not be cut without a fight. That being said, the fate of popular DOE programs for the solar industry like <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/energy.gov\/eere\/sunshot\/sunshot-initiative\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SunShot<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are up in the air.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>What the Markets are Saying<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Solar stocks were hit hard Wednesday morning following the election. President-Elect Trump is expected to allocate more resources toward fossil-fuel dependent energy sectors like oil, natural gas, and coal during his term. One byproduct of Trump\u2019s tax cutting proposals is that the 30% Federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for solar could become less effective. Additionally, uncertainty about the future of renewables in the U.S. will likely make investors hesitant and limit the access to capital in the industry. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Silver Lining<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite these setbacks, the solar industry is still poised for tremendous growth. In December 2015, lawmakers approved the extension of the Federal ITC for an additional 5 years with bipartisan support making it unlikely that Trump will be able to repeal it. Progressive states will likely expand their own incentives for renewable power generation to combat the Federal deficiency as well. If industry trends continue, renewables will eventually beat fossil fuel energy generation on cost without Federal subsidies. Although solar adoption may take longer now, and U.S. carbon emissions will stay higher for longer, the Trump administration will be unable to fundamentally change the energy economics of the solar industry.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On November 8th Florida voters rejected Amendment 1, a misleading solar amendment that would have essentially eliminated rooftop solar in the state. The amendment establishes a right in Florida\u2019s constitution to own or lease solar equipment. It also ensures that consumers who do not choose to install solar are not required to subsidize the costs of backup power and electric grid access to those who do. In effect this amendment would prevent the sale of solar energy back to the grid, eliminating net-metering and dramatically altering the economics of rooftop solar. This amendment was bankrolled by major utility players and its defeat represents a huge win for the rooftop solar industry. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The election of Donald Trump to the office of President of the United States is expected to have a profound impact on the future of environmental and renewable energy policy&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":6527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.5 (Yoast SEO v19.10) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Trump&#039;s Presidency Means for the Solar Industry | Solar.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The election of Donald Trump to the office of President of the United States is expected to have a profound impact on the future of environmental...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/what-trumps-presidency-means-for-the-solar-industry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Trump&#039;s Presidency Means for the Solar Industry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The election of Donald Trump to the office of President of the United States is expected to have a profound impact on the future of environmental...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/what-trumps-presidency-means-for-the-solar-industry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Solar.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Solar.comOfficial\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-11-10T08:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-11-13T23:17:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/solarassets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/President_Trump_Solar.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"885\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"497\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gordon Algermissen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/GHAlgermissen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gordon Algermissen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/what-trumps-presidency-means-for-the-solar-industry\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/what-trumps-presidency-means-for-the-solar-industry\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Gordon Algermissen\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/#\/schema\/person\/622904a8255ccda719fadc5dec519671\"},\"headline\":\"What Trump&#8217;s Presidency Means for the Solar Industry\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-11-10T08:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-11-13T23:17:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/what-trumps-presidency-means-for-the-solar-industry\/\"},\"wordCount\":713,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Solar Panel Installation Process\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/what-trumps-presidency-means-for-the-solar-industry\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/what-trumps-presidency-means-for-the-solar-industry\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/what-trumps-presidency-means-for-the-solar-industry\/\",\"name\":\"What Trump's Presidency Means for the Solar Industry | Solar.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-11-10T08:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-11-13T23:17:55+00:00\",\"description\":\"The election of Donald Trump to the office of President of the United States is expected to have a profound impact on the future of environmental...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/what-trumps-presidency-means-for-the-solar-industry\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/what-trumps-presidency-means-for-the-solar-industry\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/what-trumps-presidency-means-for-the-solar-industry\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Solar Learning Center\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Solar Panels for Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/solar-panels-for-home\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Solar Panel Installation Process\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/solar-panel-installation\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"What Trump&#8217;s Presidency Means for the Solar Industry\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/\",\"name\":\"Solar.com\",\"description\":\"Solar Learning Center\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/#organization\",\"name\":\"solar.com\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/assets.solar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Solar.com-Logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/assets.solar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Solar.com-Logo.jpg\",\"width\":400,\"height\":400,\"caption\":\"solar.com\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Solar.comOfficial\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/#\/schema\/person\/622904a8255ccda719fadc5dec519671\",\"name\":\"Gordon Algermissen\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9c3e86caefc11f6a13accc9657e768d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9c3e86caefc11f6a13accc9657e768d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gordon Algermissen\"},\"description\":\"Gordon was a Business Development Manager at Pick My Solar. Gordon graduated from Claremont McKenna College with a B.A. in Environment, Economics, and Politics. In addition to solar, Gordon has interests in water conservation, land management, and environmental policy.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/gordonalgermissen\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/GHAlgermissen\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/author\/gordon-algermissen\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What Trump's Presidency Means for the Solar Industry | Solar.com","description":"The election of Donald Trump to the office of President of the United States is expected to have a profound impact on the future of environmental...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/what-trumps-presidency-means-for-the-solar-industry\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What Trump's Presidency Means for the Solar Industry","og_description":"The election of Donald Trump to the office of President of the United States is expected to have a profound impact on the future of environmental...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/what-trumps-presidency-means-for-the-solar-industry\/","og_site_name":"Solar.com","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Solar.comOfficial\/","article_published_time":"2016-11-10T08:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-11-13T23:17:55+00:00","og_image":[{"width":885,"height":497,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/solarassets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/President_Trump_Solar.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Gordon Algermissen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/GHAlgermissen","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Gordon Algermissen","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/what-trumps-presidency-means-for-the-solar-industry\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/what-trumps-presidency-means-for-the-solar-industry\/"},"author":{"name":"Gordon Algermissen","@id":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/#\/schema\/person\/622904a8255ccda719fadc5dec519671"},"headline":"What Trump&#8217;s Presidency Means for the Solar Industry","datePublished":"2016-11-10T08:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2019-11-13T23:17:55+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/what-trumps-presidency-means-for-the-solar-industry\/"},"wordCount":713,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Solar Panel Installation Process"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/what-trumps-presidency-means-for-the-solar-industry\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/what-trumps-presidency-means-for-the-solar-industry\/","url":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/what-trumps-presidency-means-for-the-solar-industry\/","name":"What Trump's Presidency Means for the Solar Industry | Solar.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-11-10T08:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2019-11-13T23:17:55+00:00","description":"The election of Donald Trump to the office of President of the United States is expected to have a profound impact on the future of environmental...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/what-trumps-presidency-means-for-the-solar-industry\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/what-trumps-presidency-means-for-the-solar-industry\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/what-trumps-presidency-means-for-the-solar-industry\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Solar Learning Center","item":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Solar Panels for Home","item":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/solar-panels-for-home\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Solar Panel Installation Process","item":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/solar-panel-installation\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"What Trump&#8217;s Presidency Means for the Solar Industry"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/","name":"Solar.com","description":"Solar Learning Center","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/#organization","name":"solar.com","url":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/assets.solar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Solar.com-Logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/assets.solar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Solar.com-Logo.jpg","width":400,"height":400,"caption":"solar.com"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Solar.comOfficial\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/#\/schema\/person\/622904a8255ccda719fadc5dec519671","name":"Gordon Algermissen","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9c3e86caefc11f6a13accc9657e768d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9c3e86caefc11f6a13accc9657e768d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Gordon Algermissen"},"description":"Gordon was a Business Development Manager at Pick My Solar. Gordon graduated from Claremont McKenna College with a B.A. in Environment, Economics, and Politics. In addition to solar, Gordon has interests in water conservation, land management, and environmental policy.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/gordonalgermissen","https:\/\/twitter.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/GHAlgermissen"],"url":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/author\/gordon-algermissen\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6336"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6336"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7041,"href":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6336\/revisions\/7041"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}