Decisions about renewable energy occur at the intersection at two different logics: first, energy policy is part of political contestation with some parties committed to increasing renewable energy and other parties denying the need for renewable energy. Second, as national governments commit themselves to renewable energy and climate targets, they require local governments to deliver their part. In 2020 the Dutch government launched the concept of Regional Energy Strategies where provinces and municipalities decide in a bottom-up fashion on their contribution to the national renewable energy target. Municipal councils have the last say on the construction of solar parks in their territory. We seek to determine to what extent the placement of solar parks is structured by Regional Energy Strategies or is driven by local party politics. We study the placement of solar parks in the Netherlands at the municipal level between 2015 and 2025. Regarding party politics, we expect that the stronger proponents of renewable energy are in the municipal council and executive, the more solar parks will be constructed. We position parties and executives using state of the state-of-art language modelling on manifestos and coalition agreements. Regarding energy governance structures we expect that the greater the national mandate for renewable energy production in a municipality is, the more solar parks will be constructed. The paper contributes to advancing the knowledge of the dynamics between national and local party politics and the ability of participatory governance structures to increase local cooperation with national goals.