Chart: Most Americans support expanding solar and wind power

Canary Media’s chart of the week translates crucial data about the clean energy transition into a visual format. Canary thanks Clean Energy Counsel for its support of the column.

Solar and wind power are more popular among Americans than nuclear power or fossil fuels, according to a May survey from Pew Research Center. Republicans as well as Democrats favor expanding the renewable energy sources — but Republican support for them has fallen sharply over the last eight years.

Democrats have always viewed clean energy more favorably than Republicans, but the gap between the two was once small. Now, after years of slipping Republican support, that gap is yawning.

Today just 64 percent of Republicans support expanding solar, down dramatically from 87 percent in 2016. It’s a similar story for wind: Just 56 percent of Republicans support expanding it; in 2016 that figure was 80 percent. Meanwhile, Democratic backing for both technologies has hovered consistently around 90 percent over that period.

Support for clean energy has fallen fastest among older Republicans. Younger Republicans also view wind and solar less favorably now than they did in 2016, but their support for clean energy is still high. Over the past year, it actually increased: In 2024, 80 percent of Republicans aged 18–29 said the U.S. should build more solar and 75 percent said more wind power is a good idea, up from 77 percent and 71 percent in 2023, respectively.

Regardless of the overall downward trend, most Republicans still support expanding solar and wind development. Several GOP-controlled states — including Texas, Florida, Iowa, and Oklahoma — are among the nation’s leaders in solar and wind generation.

As Republicans have become less enthusiastic about clean energy, they’ve grown fonder of fossil fuels — in particular offshore drilling and fracking, per Pew. Democratic support for expanding these activities remains low — far lower than Republican support for expanding clean energy sources.

The parties are most aligned when it comes to expanding nuclear power. It’s one of the few topics on which the divided U.S. Congress has found common ground in recent years; a bipartisan law to streamline nuclear regulations passed this summer.

Should Donald Trump decide to gut or erode the Inflation Reduction Act — something he promised to do on the campaign trail — it could slow the development of not only solar and wind but nuclear energy too.

That would be bad for the planet — and, at least by Pew’s numbers, deeply unpopular among an American populace that wants more, not less, carbon-free energy. 

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