Latest news with #windandsolar
CNN
16-07-2025
- Business
- CNN
America was already losing to China on clean energy. Trump just sealed its fate.
The new clean energy regime can be summarized in one incredible statistic: China installed more wind and solar power in a single year than the total amount of renewable energy currently operating in the United States. America was already laps behind China in the race to dominate the industry, new data from Global Energy Monitor shows. President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful,' spending bill will secure its position as a clean-energy loser, experts told CNN. The spending law Trump signed earlier this month knee-caps clean energy tax credits for wind and solar. Business leaders say it will raise electricity prices for businesses and consumers alike here, as the cheapest electrons on the grid (generated by wind and solar) become more costly to build and are replaced with more expensive gas. At the same time, pulling funds from the clean energy industry puts it on its heels just as it was looking to make gains toward more efficient technologies and better battery storage. Meanwhile, China is currently building 510 gigawatts of utility-scale solar and wind capacity, according to Global Energy Monitor. It will be added to the eye-popping 1,400 gigawatts already online — five times what is operating in the US. In short, 'the game has already been called,' said Li Shuo, director of the China climate hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute. Wind and solar, bolstered by giant batteries that can store their energy, are also becoming an increasingly dominant force in the US, but on a much smaller scale. Renewables generate the vast majority of new electricity that's come online in the past few years in the US and make up about 85% of what is currently waiting to be approved in the nation's permitting queue. The US had roughly 275 gigawatts of wind and solar operating at the end of last year. There are another 150 gigawatts of wind and solar planned for construction through 2031, according to the US Energy Information Administration — projects at risk with Trump and Republicans' bill that quickly phases out subsidies for renewables. In the US, wind and solar developers are running into the buzzsaw that is President Donald Trump. Trump pushed forcefully to kill tax credits for wind and solar development in his signature law, succeeding in curtailing the credits and vowing to hinder the industry in other ways. The law effectively cuts planned renewables additions to the grid in half over the next decade compared to projections without it, according to modeling done by the non-partisan think tank Rhodium Group. That will mean rising electricity prices in every continental US state, due to the price of renewables increasing and more expensive gas filling the gap, as CNN has reported. Even with China's blistering pace of installations so far, 510 gigawatts of wind and solar currently being built is astonishing. Shuo said the number seemed a little higher than what Chinese analysts have projected. Mengqi Zhang and Yujia Han, the two Global Energy Monitor analysts who authored the report, told CNN that part of the reason the number is so high is that Chinese renewables developers were racing to build out quickly in order to claim government subsidies that expired in June. 'This is why the surge is coming before May,' Han said. Most of China's wind and solar farms are far away from its largest cities. But in China's capital of Beijing, the country's energy transition is apparent in another way – it is difficult to find a gas-powered car driving on the roads, Shuo said. Shuo recently visited Beijing and said nearly all Uber drivers there are driving EVs. 'All the drivers will tell you it just doesn't make any economic sense for them to purchase another (gas) vehicle,' Shuo said. 'Some of them told me that the fuel cost of driving an EV is about one sixth of an (gas)-powered vehicle.' Climate analysts in China feel confident the nation has reached its peak oil use, given the dramatic uptick in EV use, Shuo said. But the outstanding question is China's power sector, and whether all the wind and solar the country has installed over the last several years can displace coal-fired power. Over the few months, China's increased demand for power has been met entirely by renewables, meaning the country hasn't increased its planet-warming pollution even as it's using more power. 'There's still a lot of entrenched interest to support coal, but overall what we're looking at is renewable energy eating into the share of fossil fuel power generation,' Shuo said. Meanwhile, in the US, more expensive electricity could significantly hamper economic development and discourage companies from building here, undermining one of Trump's own priorities. With less wind and solar coming online due to the GOP law, plus long wait times to get new natural gas plants up and running, Rhodium analyst Ben King said some data centers and large manufacturing facilities may struggle to get enough power. 'Data centers, semiconductor manufacturing and other sources of new industrial load, that just might not be able to come online, because we may not have the generators to meet that demand,' King said.
Bloomberg
04-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
China's Main Grid Sees Renewables Trimming Chance of Blackouts
China's record buildout of renewables may help networks overcome weather-driven demand spikes, according to the research arm of the country's biggest grid operator. More than 500 gigawatts of wind and solar will be completed this year, giving clean power a 48% share in China's total capacity — overtaking thermal plants burning coal and natural gas for the first time, the State Grid Energy Research Institute said Friday in a report. That will help meet a rebound in electricity consumption in the second half of this year and help networks handle demand spikes as heat waves push up demand.
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Senate reverses course, proposing harsh tax on renewables
This story was originally published on Utility Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Utility Dive newsletter. After initially proposing a softened version of the Inflation Reduction Act cuts in the House's proposed budget legislation, the Senate's Republican leadership flip-flopped this weekend and proposed not only stiff IRA cuts but an outright tax on wind and solar projects. The bill now terminates the 45Y clean energy production tax credit and 48E clean energy manufacturing credit for wind and solar projects after 2027, and levies a penalty against new wind and solar projects that come online after 2027 unless they can completely disentangle their supply chains from China. It would also end the 25E, 30D, and 45W electric vehicle credits after September, and the 25D residential solar credit after this year. Former Trump senior adviser Elon Musk on Saturday said the Senate's latest draft of the bill 'will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!' 'Utterly insane and destructive,' he said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. 'It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.' The legislation was released just after midnight on Friday and advanced in the Senate with a 51 to 49 vote late Saturday night. The two Republican holdouts were Sen. Rand Paul, R-K.Y., and Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C. 'When you rush a bill and you don't think through the implementation, you don't get it right,' Tillis said in a Senate floor speech on Sunday, warning that energy shortages could occur if the bill is passed in its current state. President Trump responded to Tillis's defection with Saturday posts on Truth Social in which he vowed to meet with Tillis's potential primary challengers and accused him of loving 'China made windmills that will cost a fortune, ruin the landscape, and produce the most expensive Energy on Earth.' Tillis announced Sunday that he is not seeking reelection. Senators plan to resume voting Monday, as Republicans are still aiming to get the legislation to Trump's desk by his July 4 deadline. In a Saturday release, Solar Energy Industries Association President and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper called the bill a 'direct attack on American energy, American workers, and American consumers.' 'If this bill passes, Americans will pay the price — literally,' she said. 'Power bills will rise. Factory jobs will vanish ... All while we become more dependent on foreign energy and more vulnerable to blackouts.' American Clean Power Association CEO Jason Grumet said Saturday, 'These new taxes will strand hundreds of billions of dollars in current investments, threaten energy security, and undermine growth in domestic manufacturing and land.' He added that those hit hardest would be rural communities that would have been the greatest beneficiaries of clean energy investment. Neil Bradley, chief policy officer at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, praised the bill overall as 'strong' and 'pro-growth,' but added: 'That said, taxing energy production is never good policy, whether oil [and] gas or, in this case, renewables. Electricity demand is set to see enormous growth [and] this tax will increase prices.' He recommended the additional tax be removed. Liz Burdock, president and CEO of Oceantic Network, noted in a release that the Senate had 'promised a course-correction; instead offered a bill that is overall just as harsh as the House counterpart.'
Bloomberg
30-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Stock Movers: Tesla, Juniper, NextEra
On this episode of Stock Movers: - Tesla (TSLA) shares are lower, following the trend of wind and solar stocks and is the only downside mover of the Mag 7 in the premarket. CEO and founder Elon Musk has spoken out against the bill, saying the bill would destroy millions of US jobs and give "handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future." he also called cuts to electric vehicle and clean energy credits would be "incredibly destructive" to the country. - Juniper Networks (JNPR) is up in the premarket after the Justice Department settled a lawsuit challenging Hewlett Packard Enterprise's $13 billion takeover of Juniper, requiring the combined company to sell HPE's Instant On wireless networking business and auction off a license to Juniper's competing Mist business. The deal would have consolidated the sector from three major players to two, controlling 70% of the market, but the settlement preserves competition in the global networking market. - NextEra Energy (NEE) is one of many wind and solar stocks moving to the downside this morning amid Senate deliberations over the US tax bill. The new version of the bill adjusts key provisions on the SALT deduction, Medicaid, and clean energy, and includes compromises among warring factions of the Senate GOP. - Palantir (PLTR) shares are higher this morning after Friday's decline. It comes amid news the company partnered with Accenture Federal Service to form a strategic partnership to provide AI capabilities to federal agencies.
Yahoo
28-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Updated Senate bill slashes wind and solar incentives – and adds a new tax
An updated draft of the Senate's megabill text slashes tax incentives for wind and solar energy – and adds a new tax on future wind and solar projects. The initial draft released by Senate Republicans earlier this month cut the credit for any wind and solar projects that did not 'begin construction' by certain dates, while the latest version bases incentives on when projects actually begin producing electricity — a much higher bar to clear. The first draft gave any project that began construction this year full credit, any project that began construction next year 60 percent credit and any project that began construction in 2027 20 percent of the credit, before they were phased out thereafter. The new legislation instead says that the credits will only apply to facilities that begin producing electricity before the end of 2027. In addition, it imposes a new tax on some wind and solar projects that are placed in service after 2027. The projects that will be taxed if a certain percentage of the value of their components come from China. The Democrats' 2022 Inflation Reduction Act included hundreds of billions of dollars in tax credits for low-carbon energy sources, including renewable energy. These subsidies were expected to massively reduce the U.S.' planet warming emissions. The GOP's cuts to the credits are expected to severely curtail those gains. If they pass, the cuts represent a win for the party's right flank, which has pushed for major cuts to the credits, and a loss for it's more moderate wing which has called for a slower phaseout. The renewables lobby slammed the changes as hampering the sector. 'In what can only be described as 'midnight dumping,' the Senate has proposed a punitive tax hike targeting the fastest-growing sectors of our energy industry. It is astounding that the Senate would intentionally raise prices on consumers rather than encouraging economic growth and addressing the affordability crisis facing American households,' Jason Grumet, CEO of the American Clean Power Association, said in a written statement. 'These new taxes will strand hundreds of billions of dollars in current investments, threaten energy security, and undermine growth in domestic manufacturing and land hardest on rural communities who would have been the greatest beneficiaries of clean energy investment,' he added. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
