George Gemelas: 3 exciting innovations to reimagine solar in Indiana

Across Indiana, electricity bills are rising and frustration is mounting — even though one of the cheapest sources of new power is readily available: solar energy.

The state’s attitude toward solar power is a bit of a contradiction.

Indiana ranks among the national leaders in resistance to solar, with one of the highest numbers of counties imposing bans or restrictions, state laws that make it harder for homeowners to sell excess power back to the grid and heated local battles that have drawn national attention.

Yet even amid that backlash, solar is rapidly expanding here. In 2025, Indiana ranked third in the nation for solar growth — behind only Texas and California — nearly doubling its generating capacity.

How solar progresses in the face of these dynamics here isn’t clear. For today, though, let’s set aside any contested part of this tech.

Instead, let me present three innovations for solar that make you think twice about how this technology could integrate in our great state.

Plug-in solar for your home

Imagine walking into Menards or Lowe’s, pulling off the shelf a solar unit about the size of a flatscreen TV, taking it home, placing it on your patio, balcony or fence, and plugging it right into your house.

This homemade energy can power your own home, covering over 10% to 14% of a typical home’s electricity use. It’s a recoverable investment in approximately 2-1/2 to 5 years.

Thanks to trailblazing work in Utah by a Republican lawmaker, you’ll soon be able to buy solar and plug it into your home in America.

Utah State Rep. Raymond Ward passed his plug-in solar bill unanimously in 2025 in his deep-red state: 72-0 in the House, 27-0 in the Senate. Thirty other states have now introduced similar legislation.

A no-brainer, right? Buy, and plug in. Indiana should allow it.

Solar over parking lots

When I was a kid, I always thought asphalt parking lots were a hot desert. As I got older, I thought they were boring, sub-optimally-used spaces. Today, I see a field of opportunity.

Let’s build solar canopies over parking lots.

For businesses, it creates a way to cut electricity costs and generate a revenue stream. For shoppers, it creates a cooler experience, and helps turn black deserts into public space with visual interest. That’s why companies like Walmart and Target have begun pursuing them.

Guess what? Indiana already has them. Evansville’s airport built one of the country’s first and largest airport solar parking canopies, and, combined with premium parking underneath, it turned a profit in its first year of operation.

Solar with your farm

Here’s an innovation that blows my mind: agrophotovoltaics — or, perhaps plainly, “farm solar.”

These are tilted solar panels that sit combine-tall above active farmland. They give farmers a strong second income stream while still farming the land and are designed to optimize for minimal yield losses and in some cases deliver yield gains.

Purdue University is among the country’s pioneers in this truly “ag-tech” idea. They are designing panels that track and rotate toward the sun throughout the day so that no corn row is left in excessive shadow. It’s even opening cropland to more shade-preferred crops like strawberries or spinach.

These three innovations share one thing: they go around the traditional land-use fights that have hampered Indiana’s solar debate.

The enthusiasm for new nuclear energy present in the state should be matched by enthusiasm for the nuclear fusion reactor already in the sky. We should capture the sun’s power.•

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Gemelas is chief operating officer at Climate Solutions Fund, outstanding fellow of Mitch Daniels Leadership Foundation and a proud Greek-American. Send comments to [email protected].

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