Not long ago, American-made solar panels were a punch line. China made the panels; we bought them. That story is over.
In just four years, the U.S. has engineered one of the most dramatic industrial reversals in modern memory. Domestic solar module manufacturing capacity has grown more than 750%, from roughly 8 gigawatts before 2022’s federal manufacturing incentives to nearly 70 GW today. In October 2025, domestic production capacity surpassed 60 GW — enough, for the first time, to meet total U.S. annual solar demand.
At the center of this transformation sits Texas. The state is projected to produce more than 15 gigawatts of solar modules in 2026 alone — potentially close to half of all U.S. silicon-based solar manufacturing.
The companies driving this are real and betting big on Texas. T1 Energy has built a module assembly plant near Dallas and is constructing a 5-GW solar cell factory in Rockdale, anchored by polysilicon and wafers from a Corning facility in Michigan. Canadian Solar, SEG Solar, Waaree Energies and Imperial Star have all added gigawatt-scale production in the state.
T1 also recently acquired battery maker KORE Power, part of a broader push to reshore the entire solar and storage supply chain. Tesla is developing a vertically integrated solar manufacturing campus in Brookshire, near Houston, spanning ingots to finished panels, in pursuit of Elon Musk’s stated goal of 100 GW of annual U.S. solar manufacturing capacity.
The inaugural Solar Manufacturing USA conference convenes in Austin this September. It’s in Austin because, right now, Texas is the story.
Why Texas? Land, a business-friendly regulatory climate and a grid — ERCOT — hungry for new generation.
Data centers and industrial loads are surging, and solar and storage now make up the majority of new generation seeking interconnection on the ERCOT grid, with Texas expected to add roughly 41 GW of solar capacity over the next five years.
Texas has, in fact, overtaken California in utility-scale solar generation as of 2025. The manufacturers followed the demand, and the demand keeps growing.
A responsible opinion piece acknowledges the complications. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act introduced new sunset dates and stricter domestic content requirements, raising compliance costs and uncertainty for manufacturers planning multiyear investments.
Sunnova, Mosaic and Freedom Forever all filed for bankruptcy amid high interest rates and shifting incentives. Steel and aluminum tariffs have added an estimated 10 cents to 15 cents per watt to hardware costs, even for domestic producers.
None of this changes the underlying reality: The U.S. has chosen to rebuild industrial capacity in a sector that will define energy security for decades. The Section 45X Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit remains intact for solar components, with no sunset scheduled — the structural backbone of that commitment.
Solar is not a niche market. It’s a continental-scale industrial opportunity. For too long, America outsourced its solar supply chain to China. Texas is showing a different path: not waiting for perfect policy or pristine supply chains, but building factories, hiring workers and making panels — because the market demand is that great.
America made steel here. We made cars here. We made semiconductors here — and are doing so again. There’s no reason we can’t make solar panels here at scale. We already are.
Matt Welch is the state director of Conservative Texans for Energy Innovation, a nonprofit promoting free enterprise, increased competition and less government regulation in the energy economy.
