Global investment in renewable energy projects hit a new record this year - but fell in the U.S. according to a study by BloombergNEF.

The first half of 2025 saw the "reallocation" of investment dollars away from the United States, with spending falling $20.5 billion, or 36 percent, from the second half of 2024. It was the steepest drop in renewable energy investment in any nation. Bloomberg stated the falloff was a direct response to the U.S. presidential election and anticipated anti-renewable federal policies.

Those fears have proven justified. Cancellation of clean tech manufacturing plans outpaced new investment announcements in the second quarter of this year. Developers cancelled roughly $5 billion worth of previously announced manufacturing investments in Q2, while companies announced only $4B in new projects. That $4B is a 59 percent drop from the first quarter of 2025 and a 44 percent decline from the second quarter of 2024.

In addition to the removal of renewable energy tax incentives by the Trump administration, tariffs are also having a negative impact on projects. A study by Arevon, a leading utility-scale solar developer, found that the cost of solar and battery storage projects increased by as much as 30 percent due to tariffs on steel and aluminum.

Battery Storage Capacity Doubles by 2026

EIA projects utility-scale storage capacity will grow from 29 GW in 2025 to 65.7 GW by the end of 2026 - with Texas leading the way with 18 GW of planned storage added this year.

Grid storage capacity has seen tremendous gains in recent years. Generators added 10.4 GW of new battery storage capacity in 2024, growing capacity by 66 percent.

Storage deployment is anticipated to see continued growth over the coming decade. While wind and solar incentives were targeted in the recent budget reconciliation bill, incentives for grid storage were largely untouched.

Battery storage projects will continue to have tax credits available through 2033. However, they will still face development headwinds primarily in complying with the new Foreign Entities of Concern restrictions that limit tax credits for anyone buying components from China, Russia or Iran.

China accounted for 74 percent of the world's battery pack and component exports in 2023. That same year, China controlled nearly 85 percent of the world's battery cell production capacity

ITC unanimously votes to investigate solar panels from India, Indonesia and Laos

The global game of solar panel whack-a-mole continues.

All three commissioners on the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) voted to investigate solar cells and panels imported from India, Indonesia and Laos for unfair trade practices.

The Alliance for American Solar Manufacturing and Trade requested the antidumping/countervailing duty investigation in mid-July. The group represents American solar manufacturers who claim panels from those nations are unfairly competing with domestic suppliers. The US solar market saw a dramatic uptick in solar imports from the three countries once tariffs were placed on solar imports from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

The U.S. manufacturers claim that to avoid the Southeast Asian tariffs, global solar manufacturers relocated their operations to India, Indonesia and Laos and those countries' governments subsidized the process.

Restrictions had been placed on panels from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam after Chinese manufacturers relocated production to those nations to avoid tariffs placed on panels from China.
Construction underway on 1st floating tracker solar project in US

Noria Energy, a developer of floating solar panel systems, has begun construction on Aurea Solar, a 50-kW floating solar pilot project in Golden, Colorado that will provide renewable energy for local water utility operations.

The Golden project is the first in the United States to deploy floating solar tracking technology on water. Today's conventional floating solar systems are static and do not track the sun. This installation will track the sun by rotating the solar array, increasing the system's energy output by an estimated 10 to 20 percent, according to a statement from Noria Energy.

The project is located on the Fairmount Reservoir, a water storage reservoir owned and operated by Consolidated Mutual Water Company (CMWC). The 50-kW project is scheduled to begin generating power in September of this year.