One year after the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 ("IRA"), S&P Global reported "companies have announced plans to build or expand 83 clean energy manufacturing facilities." Those 83 new construction projects do not account for "facilities devoted to electric vehicle batteries and components, meaning total new investments disclosed in the past year are even higher," according to S&P Global. Just a few months earlier in June 2023, the National Renewable Energy Lab reported US solar and storage companies announced more than $100 billion in new investments, with approximately 51 new or expanded solar manufacturing facilities announced in 2022. S&P Global similarly reported in August 2023,
[o]f the new or expanded manufacturing plants announced since the IRA's signing, more than 50 are for solar component production . . . . Among them, Hanwha Solutions Corp. subsidiary Hanwha Qcells announced in January [2023] that it will invest more than $2.5 billion to expand its solar manufacturing capacity in Georgia.
In the wind production space, many credit the IRA with turning the domestic wind energy production industry around. The IRA added additional areas for lease in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic—off the coast of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Reporting that "[c]ompanies are also ramping up investment in the more established US wind energy manufacturing base and in battery storage technology," S&P Global noted "South Korea-headquartered LG Energy Solution Ltd. said it would break ground later this year on a $5.5 billion lithium-ion battery production complex in Arizona that it billed as North America's 'single largest investment ever' in a stand-alone battery factory."
What about the IRA has the renewable energy sector so bullish on investment in the US? There are three answers to that question that Shawn Daray and I explore in the Spring 2024 issue of Under Construction by the ABA Forum on Construction Law.
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