One big bad bill for solar in Florida

By Susan Tanski, Sunstone Credit

Stormy skies are brewing for solar energy in the Sunshine State. Last month, the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives approved its budget bill, the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, which, if signed into law, will end solar energy tax incentives for businesses and homeowners largely by the end of this year. This abrupt change in policy will devastate the booming Florida solar industry and prevent millions of homeowners and businesses across the state from saving money and asserting energy choice with solar for years to come.

Aside from generic objections to deficit spending, there are two key Republican critiques of solar tax credits that have formed in the discourse regarding the bill. One is that solar is a product favored only by ivory tower elites in blue states and therefore of limited political importance, and the other is that by crushing American demand for solar energy, a devastating economic blow will be dealt to China, which currently leads the solar manufacturing industry globally. Unfortunately, both are seriously misguided.

Florida is not known for its ivory towers, and yet it has the third most residential solar per capita of any state. I recently drove from Ocala to Perry and in this swath of Florida — including Levy, Dixie and Taylor counties, all of which President Donald Trump won by over 50 points in 2024 — there was plenty of residential solar on display.

These homes were a far cry from the mansions of Silicon Valley. They belonged to working Florida families for whom saving $50 a month on utility bills with solar is a big deal. That’s who the average residential solar customer actually is in 2025 — a family that goes solar as a way to offset everyday expenses like gas and groceries.

And Florida families, already stretched thin by rising insurance rates, housing costs and inflation, are about to feel even more financial strain. Florida Power & Light recently proposed the largest utility rate hike in U.S. history.

With this increase, the average home or business owner will see utility bills go up by, at a minimum, hundreds of dollars annually. Many will look to solar to protect their budgets. However, without federal tax incentives in place, solar will be out of reach for most.

While it is true that China currently leads the way in solar manufacturing globally, reducing American demand for solar will hardly tank their industry. China and the European Union, currently ranked first and second for installed solar capacity globally, are projected to more than triple and double their installed capacity, respectively, by 2030.

At the same time, other major markets like India and Brazil are also rapidly scaling. So, while the United States represents a significant portion of the global demand for solar equipment, slowing our growth in isolation won’t take down China.

Furthermore, due to growth-oriented policies such as federal tax incentives, the United States has managed to improve our own position in solar manufacturing to third globally. In fact, this country now has almost enough domestic module manufacturing to supply American demand. In Florida, there are over 50 solar manufacturers, accounting for thousands of jobs.

To reverse course on this policy now wouldn’t harm the Chinese, it would instead remove the only capable threat to their industry dominance. And never in the past century has the United States ever ceded dominance in a nascent tech-enabled industry to any foreign nation. It defies American exceptionalism.

The Senate can still save solar before passing this Big Beautiful Bill. In Florida alone, over 14,000 jobs and tens of billions of investment dollars are at stake. Phasing tax credits out over time would provide significant relief to the deficit while also giving the industry the opportunity to grow.

Solar is the future, and today, Florida, and the rest of the country, are winning. Congress must meet this generational moment.

Susan Tanski, of Miami Beach, is co-founder and chief strategy officer at Sunstone Credit, a clean energy finance platform that helps small businesses and homeowners go solar. This opinion piece was originally published by the South Florida Sun Sentinel, which is a media partner of The Invading Sea. 

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