While campaigning for Republicans in Lubbock, Texas, US President Donald Trump announced a sweeping rollback of rules that aim to curb oil and gas producers from emitting methane while repeating his distaste for renewable energy technologies. In a comment about solar panels, he claimed they "fry" and "kill all the animals," assertions experts tell AFP are false.
Trump told the October 27, 2026 rally that some solar panels installed in Texas — which is expanding solar capacity faster than any other US state — differ from the "big monsters that they put up all over and that kill all the animals."
He also claimed, "the animals jump on them and they fry" due to the "black panels" being "hotter than your stove."
Trump has repeatedly complained that renewable energy sources such as wind turbines and solar farms are "ugly" and supposedly cause harm to animals.
But the assertion that solar panels "fry" animals is " not supported by evidence," natural resources expert at Cornell University Leana Zoller told AFP in an October 28 email (archived here).
Solar panels can get hot under certain conditions, she said.
"On warm, sunny days, their surfaces can be around 20-25C (36-45F) warmer than the surrounding air temperature, so they can reach temperatures of 55-70C (131-158F). However, this does not mean that animals briefly touching or living near panels are being burned."
In contrast, studies have shown that solar panels typically cool the space underneath them — where most critters live (archived here and here). They can also provide shade to certain species such as sheep.
Sheep graze between solar panels on a hillside at Huangjiao village in Baoding in China's northern Hebei provincebal markets in 2021
GREG BAKERAFP
For that reason, Femke Nijsse, a clean energy transition scientist at the University of Exeter, in the United Kingdom, told AFP that "solar panels are being increasingly used in arid climates as part of agrivoltaics, with the goal of making the ground underneath more hospitable" to wildlife (archived here).
"Panels are positioned at an angle, so you can't really jump on them either," she remarked in an October 28 email.
Howard Crystal, senior attorney at the non-profit conservation group, Center for Biodiversity, also confirmed: "Solar panel farms are not hot, and they do not kill animals" (archived here).
He pointed to "Concentrated Solar Power (CSP)" as a possible origin of the president's claim.
CSP uses mirrors to reflect and concentrate sunlight onto a receiver, converting the radiation into high-temperature heat (archived here).
CSP is unrelated to photovoltaic panels, which directly generate electricity and do not get very hot when properly used (archived here).
"While it is true that CSP generates heat and birds can be injured from the heat, it is not because the mirrors get hot," Crystal said in an October 28 email.
Sebastian Dunnett, a renewable energy and biodiversity expert, also told AFP the president overstated the impact of solar panels on animals (archived here). He added in an October 28 email that CSP "is by far the minority technology" among solar energy solutions on the market.
The White House pointed AFP to articles reporting birds harmed at or near solar energy-based operations.
But in preliminary research it sent, the paper's authors concluded that avian mortality rates tied to the facilities — small for CSP and even smaller for photovoltaics — were "considerably lower than mortality from other human activities" (archived here).
Egrets fly over solar panels in Jinhu County, Huaian municipality, east China's Jiangsu province on December 16, 2024
CN-STR
Greg Keoleian, co-director of the Center for Sustainable Systems at the University of Michigan (archived here), said Trump's statements about solar panels at the rally were "very troubling."
Misinformation about clean energy technologies "has major environmental and economic consequences" when a transition towards sustainable energy is necessary, he said in an October 28 email (archived here).
Additionally, the "health risks of solar panels to wildlife are low, particularly in comparison to fossil-based electricity generation."
Natasha Järviö, an assistant professor in sustainability science at Finland's LUT University, told AFP that the greatest benefit of photovoltaics is that, unlike fossil fuels, they do not emit CO2 or other pollutants when in use (archived here).
"Less CO2 in the atmosphere means less potential for climate change and thus a reduced chance for all living creatures — including humans — of being 'fried' by increased global temperatures," she said in an October 29 email.
AFP has investigated other misleading claims made by the US president on environmental issues.
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