Ohio is in the midst of a renewable energy boom.
While wind generation has increased, solar is growing much faster. The amount of solar generation installed in Ohio has more than doubled over the last two years to 3.22 megawatts, representing an investment of more than $4.2 billion. Ohio ranks 14th in the nation for installed solar generation, up from 32nd in 2022.
The growth has not occurred without controversy.
The increase in solar generation has caused concern about the reliability of Ohio’s electric grid. A reassessment of generation sources by PJM, which manages the grid in Ohio and other Midwestern and East Coast states, determined solar may not have as much capacity during peak demand as previously believed, resulting in a “further tightening the supply-demand balance.”
Local communities have also raised concerns about renewables. This led the Ohio Legislature to give authority to counties to limit or ban new wind and solar generation facilities. At least 16 Ohio counties, plus numerous cities and townships, have taken advantage of this to oppose or reject new wind or solar projects. The Ohio Power Siting Board has rejected at least four solar facilities.
With the election of Donald Trump and Ohio’s J.D. Vance, more questions are being raised about the future of renewable energy in Ohio. Trump has promised to roll back the funding of what he called the “green new scam.”
“Next, we will end the ridiculous and actually incredible waste of taxpayer dollars that is actually fueling the inflation crisis,” Trump said in speech earlier this summer.
Ohio has received millions of dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act, which President Biden signed in 2022. Ryan Mooney-Bullock, the executive director of regional climate collaborative Green Umbrella, expressed cautious optimism that funding will continue, according to WVXU.
"While we are definitely concerned that there may be some rollbacks of funding, the [Biden] administration put a lot of measures in place to protect against that,” Mooney-Bullock said. “We're still learning and understanding what all the details are going to be.”
Ohioans are not the only people concerned about federal funding for renewable energy. Some of the recipients of federal funds are foreign-based solar companies.
China controls about 80% of the solar cell market and makes 97% of the world’s solar ingots and wafers. Yet because of the IRA’s focus on U.S. domestic manufacturing, Chinese and other foreign firms have not been able to access much of the federal funding for solar.
Some Chinese firms have adjusted to that by opening U.S. manufacturing facilities. For instance, Chinese company Trina Solar built a solar panel factory in Texas, which it recently sold for $340 million to the Norwegian firm FREYR Battery.
Foreign investment has also taken place in Ohio. Illuminate USA manufactures solar panels in its Pataskala facility east of Columbus. CleanTechnica reports the company is 51% owned by the U.S. company Invenergy and 49% owned by Chinese solar manufacturer Longi Green Energy.
Vice President-elect J.D. Vance has previously expressed concern about the effects of spending U.S. tax dollars on Chinese solar panels.
“The real issue is that if you’re spending hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars of American taxpayer money on solar panels that are made in China, No. 1, you’re going to make the economy dirtier,” Vance said.
It is unclear how the Trump administration will address issues like Illuminate USA. But given Trump’s and Vance’s comments about renewable energy, it is likely that federal energy policy will change. This is even more likely given Trump’s nomination of the new secretary of energy.
Trump recently named Chris Wright as his nominee to head the U.S. Department of Energy. Wright is the founder and CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, a fracking and oilfield services company.
As Trump said when he announced the nomination, “Chris was one of the pioneers who helped launch the American shale revolution that fueled American energy independence, and transformed the global energy markets and geopolitics.”
Under Wright’s leadership, electric generation from fossil fuels and nuclear will likely get far more attention than the Biden administration’s focus on renewables.
How this will affect Ohio is still unknown. Yet whatever changes may occur, there are more renewable generation already on the way in Ohio.
Currently, 12 new solar projects are under construction. And 24 projects totaling 3,523 megawatts have already been approved by the Ohio Power Siting Board. Another 10 with 1,993 megawatts are pending decision or in the pre-application stage. If all the solar projects in the queue come online, solar generation capacity in Ohio will almost quadruple.