Year after Biden’s climate bill sees spike in renewable energy investment, industry says

The year after President Biden signed a major climate, tax and health care bill saw a significant spike in renewable energy investments, according to an industry trade group.

A new report from the American Clean Power Association says that the past year saw more than $270 billion in capital investments, an amount greater than such investments in the past eight years combined. 

New projects announced over the past year together could have a generating capacity of 184,850 megawatts, the report said. 

John Hensley, the association’s vice president for research and analytics, told reporters that the new power capacity would be enough to fuel about 46 million U.S. homes. 

Of the total $270 billion, $22 billion represents investments in manufacturing, the report said. 

It identified 83 announcements for either new or expanded facilities related to the manufacturing of climate-friendly energy, including 52 solar manufacturing facilities, 14 facilities for making energy-storing batteries and 11 for wind energy manufacturing.

Hensley said that the majority of the investments were benefitting parts of the country where Republicans hold power. 

“Where locations are known, 80 percent of clean power projects are being built in Republican-held districts and over 60 percent of the manufacturing facilities that we’ve seen announced are being built in red states,” he said. 

The investments follow the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which contains tax credits for power sources including wind and solar. The bill came about as a compromise between Democratic leadership and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). No Republicans voted for it.