The American Clean Power Association has gone on to confirm that the utility-scale energy sector across the US has gone on to receive investments of more than $150 billion since the time the Inflation Reduction Act was signed and brought into law in August 2022.
The ACP has estimated that this amount is equivalent to five years of clean energy investments. The total funding has gone on to surpass the overall investment that has been made in US clean power projects between 2017 and 2021.
Of the most tangible impacts of the IRA, the elevation in clean energy manufacturing because of the tax credits and renewable energy grants is significant.
The last eight months have seen the announcement of 46 clean energy manufacturing setups, which include new projects, expansions, and re-openings of existing facilities.
The figure includes 26 solar manufacturing facilities, 8 wind manufacturing facilities, 10 facilities related to battery storage, and 2 plants in the offshore wind supply chain. All these are anticipated to create almost 18,000 jobs across the country.
It is well to note that almost $4.4 billion in savings were announced for more than 24 million customers. Additionally, 96,000 MW of new clean power was also announced. The new federal incentives when it comes to clean energy are expected to double its workforce and also power the equivalent of every home across the US by 2030. According to Jason Grumet, chief executive of the American Clean Power Association, the clean energy transition is indeed racing ahead, and American companies are making humongous investments, elevating their competitiveness as well as rejuvenating the manufacturing sector. However, one cannot build a robust and resilient economy without improvements when it comes to the permitting of new energy infrastructure. The American private sector has the resources, the technology, and the workforce to build a clean energy portfolio and thereby deliver trustworthy, affordable, and clean power to families as well as businesses. All that they need to do now is get Congress to create a permitting system that equals the challenge and is designed to succeed.
That said, the ACP believes that the opportunity to build clean energy resources significantly must come with streamlining as well as expediting the permitting process, and the failure to be able to do so will put 100 GW of clean energy in jeopardy of an enormous delay in addition to 150,000 jobs. It is well to be noted that the total corporate funding in energy storage stands at $2.2 billion due to 27 deals that happened in the first quarter of 2023, which was a drop of a whopping 83% year over year vis-à-vis the $12.9 billion raised in as many deals in 2022 as per Mercom’s report on Q1 Energy storage and smart grid funding.
On the other hand, the total corporate funding when it comes to solar companies stands at $8.4 billion in 42 deals, which is an increase of $7.5 billion that has been raised across 49 deals, according to the Mercom report.