EV and rooftop solar uptake slower in regions with high support for far-right AfD – researcher

Low-carbon technologies tend to spread more slowly in regions where the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) enjoys greater support, researchers from the University of Freiburg have found in a study published in science journal Nature Sustainability. “There could be substantially more solar power installations and electric vehicles (EVs) without the rise of the AfD,” researcher Moritz Wussow told news station ntv in an interview.

According to the researchers’ simulations, Germany would have had 10,000 to 20,000 more rooftop solar installations by 2023, around one percent more, if the AfD’s vote share had stayed at its 2013 level. “For EVs, the difference is greater, amounting to 40,000 to 50,000 cars, which equals three percent,” he added. The link between support for the anti-climate action party and the uptake of solar PV and EVs was visible even though the AfD has never been in government.

The researchers analysed the spread of clean technologies in more than 10,700 municipalities across the country in 2023 and controlled for factors including income, age, gender and housing. They found a consistently lower interest in solar power and electric mobility among AfD supporters, particularly when compared to supporters of the Green Party. The researchers said their findings should not be interpreted as precise causal estimate but rather illustrate the potential magnitude of differences in technology adoption under alternative vote-share trajectories. 

“The energy transition happens more slowly wherever the AfD is successful,” Wussow said. However, solar and EV uptake is growing in AfD strongholds too, and the relative gap is shrinking: rooftop solar penetration in AfD-leaning municipalities was 76 percent below that of Green-leaning ones in 2000, but only 31 percent lower in 2023. But because overall uptake has grown, the absolute gap has still widened.

Support for the AfD, which rejects the energy transition and denies human influence on global warming has grown significantly across Germany in recent years. The party secured 10.3 percent of the vote in the 2021 federal election and 20.8 percent in 2025. It currently polls between 25 and 30 percent. 

Due to a landslide victory the Saxony-Anhalt state election in September, the party whose state branch is classified as confirmed right-wing extremist by the state’s domestic intelligence agency, could lead a state government in Germany for the first time, depending on the support of other parties’ representatives in parliament who would be needed to give the AfD a majority.  

The far-right party’s election win has raised concerns among renewable energy proponents, environmental groups and climate researchers about the effects on the energy transition and public debate in one of Germany’s poorest states. Saxony-Anhalt is part of former communist East Germany, where support for many climate action and decarbonisation policies is often lower than the national average. 

However, a survey commissioned by the Fachagentur Wind und Solar, a non-profit association whose members include the federal and state governments, business and conservation groups, showed that key energy transition measures enjoy very high support nationwide and across political camps. In the survey of more than 1,000 people made in September 2026, 94 percent of respondents said they support a swift expansion of electricity grids and 95 percent said they back greater expansion of energy storage facilities. “The expansion is seen as necessary across all political affiliations for the future of our energy system,” the agency said.