In 1790, Samuel Slater set up the first mechanized textile mill in the new United States. To power it, he harnessed the swift current of Rhode Island’s Blackstone River. Slater used the abundant energy of New England’s rivers to build an industry. He is known as the American Father of the Industrial Revolution, except in England where he’s called Slater the Traitor. Exporting technological know-how without permission is not without controversy.

Tapping into the energy of rivers was only the beginning. Over the last 250 years, the history of American energy has been a history of energy innovation and abundance. 

In the 1860s, Edwin Drake utilized the know-how of salt miners to drill a seventy-foot hole in western Pennsylvania. As the sun set, he left for the night. When he returned in the morning, there was oil in the hole. It was the world’s first successful oil well.

America’s energy abundance spread in all directions. The Appalachian Mountains, running from Pennsylvania to Alabama, provided a wealth of coal. Thomas Edison used dark bituminous coal to fire boilers in the world’s first electrical plant in lower Manhattan. It was located a few blocks away from and a few years after where a now-forgotten inventor named Charles Fritts installed the first solar panels atop a building where the New York Federal Reserve Building (and its massive gold holdings) now sits.

The 20th century brought the discovery of the great East Texas oilfield and the rise of Henry Ford’s internal combustion engines. Western dams turned rivers into gigawatts and later allowed air conditioning to reach Los Angeles. Petroleum plants along the Gulf Coast manufactured the jet fuel that won World War II, and off the coast, the oil industry learned how to drill in increasingly deep water. 

Americans smashed atoms and built nuclear power plants. And as the 21st century began, engineers figured out how to break open dense rock to unleash massive new reserves of natural gas. The fracking boom changed the game again. 

Many people believe solar is the next energy source to step up and continue this 250-year string of abundance. Americans built the largest oil industry in the world, and the largest gas industry. Now it’s time to build the world’s largest solar industry.

America needs abundant energy now as much as ever. Artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, data centers, and domestic industrial growth are driving a surge in electricity demand unlike anything the United States has seen in decades. We need more electricity generation to invigorate America and we need it now.

For the past 250 years, America has run on energy we had to go and get. We dug for coal and drilled for oil. Today, we have a new answer to deliver energy abundance — and it can be manufactured. Solar energy is scalable on demand. It's increasingly affordable.

Electricity is the invisible foundation of everything: schools, factories, hospitals, homes. And the solar energy available to us is practically unlimited. One hour of Texas sunshine contains more energy than the world uses in a day. Just one hour of the sun’s rays hitting Earth contains more energy than the world uses in a year.

We can manufacture the solar modules that capture that sunshine right here in the United States. When we do, we’ll extend our energy independence and extend the era of American energy abundance.

Manufacturing our energy abundance at home matters. As we look ahead to the next 250 years, building the infrastructure to power our energy independence and AI leadership on American soil is important for decreasing vulnerabilities. A domestic energy supply that is manufactured at home is good for jobs, good for the economy, protects our supply chains, keeps factories here, keeps industrial technologies here, and makes it easier to respond when unpredictability rears its head.

Solar energy is strategic energy because it can be manufactured. Beyond satisfying the increase in electricity demand due to AI and data centers, a strong domestic solar industry keeps our economy resilient and allows for energy autonomy.

Solar’s scalability allows us to tackle electricity affordability. The advanced manufacturing need for solar cells and modules means creating thousands of skilled, permanent jobs. These aren’t 1950’s assembly-line jobs. These are careers. High skill. High pay. High stakes.

More than 1,200 men and women work in T1’s G1_Dallas, one of the largest and most advanced solar manufacturing facilities in the world. They work alongside advanced robotics to keep one of the most sophisticated solar module facilities in the world operating safely, precisely, and at full speed. The capacity: more than 20,000 modules a day.

The people making it happen carry titles you might not expect. Soldering Technicians. Thermal Process Engineers. Sourcing Specialists. Automation Technicians. Quality Control Analysts. Logistics Coordinators. Each role is essential. Each person is building something that matters.

These aren't temporary jobs or transitional employment. They're skilled, well-paying, and rooted in the community. G1_Dallas carries a payroll of more than $100MM annually, and the impact doesn't stop at the facility gates. It flows into local businesses, local schools, and local families across the Dallas region. (Our entire domestic solar supply chain, including our partners, is expected to support 3,000 jobs between Michigan and Texas.)

The workforce at G1 represents something bigger than any single shift or production run. It is proof that advanced manufacturing belongs in America — that the workers who built this country's industrial strength are still here, still skilled, and ready to build what comes next.

In addition, solar requires several minerals and metals and therefore bolsters domestic supply chains across multiple adjacent industries. Silver, aluminum, glass – these are real supply chains with real vulnerabilities. Reshoring our minerals and metals industries is another kind of strategic autonomy we can’t pass up. And domestic solar can get us there. 

For years, the conversation around solar energy was framed almost entirely through the lens of climate politics. This was a fundamental misunderstanding of solar energy. Solar energy’s defining attributes are that it is scalable, reliable, and low cost. (Solar does have very low emissions, but that’s not the driving force behind its rapid global growth. The biggest contributor to lower carbon emissions was the increased generation of electricity by natural gas instead of coal.)

Solar has become the engine of the global and U.S. energy growth, nearly doubling in the past three years. Since January 2024, more than half of all electrical generation added in the U.S. has been solar, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration data. The same is true for the globe as a whole, according to Ember. 

Solar can deliver the energy abundance that Americans want. It is scalable today. No need to wait until the 2030s for a new gas turbine or nuclear power plant.

In addition, we need to think about solar in terms of the economy and jobs. The United States is finally rebuilding a domestic solar manufacturing base capable of producing leading energy technology in American factories with American workers. Across the country, factories producing solar modules, components, and energy storage technologies are opening or expanding, particularly in states eager to attract new industrial investment and strengthen local economies. 

These facilities create skilled jobs, revitalize manufacturing communities, and help secure the energy infrastructure needed to support future economic growth.

This is not about replacing one energy source with another. America will need every available form of reliable domestic energy production to meet rising electricity demand and maintain grid stability.

Creating a domestic solar manufacturing industry is necessary, and so are reforms to simplify and speed energy additions. America’s grid was built on complex and at times contradictory local, state, and federal policies. As speed to power becomes a gating factor to economic growth, permitting and interconnection access must be streamlined and costs to connect must be lowered. Other changes are also important. The American electrical utility model still relies heavily on rate-base and cost-plus incentives, even when new technologies could lower costs and speed deployment. 

The Trump Administration’s leadership on American Energy Dominance and AI Dominance illustrate their seriousness of tackling this problem.

Americans deserve energy abundance and a modern grid that delivers reliable and affordable electricity. Taking these steps will reduce energy costs, create jobs, spur domestic manufacturing investments, and unlock AI dominance.

Solar energy can be scaled quickly to deliver the energy we need to thrive as we begin our next 250 years. At a moment when the United States is racing to out-build competitors, modernize its grid, and secure the infrastructure needed for future growth, we can also rebuild our industrial capacity.