Companies announced investments in at least 450 new or existing clean energy manufacturing facilities in the U.S. during the nearly three years of the Biden administration, totaling more than $160 billion, the Department said Thursday of Energy (DOE).
The figures cover projects in the battery, electric vehicle, offshore wind and solar sectors, the department said in a press release announcing an interactive map to track clean energy investments with localized details.
Among the nation’s 50 states, California has the most clean energy manufacturing projects with investments announced since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, with 52 and a total value of $5 billion. However, among the list of eight states with the most clean energy manufacturing facilities that have attracted investment under Biden, Georgia ranks first in terms of value with $32 billion for 31 projects. Rounding out the list are Michigan (38 projects), New York (30), Texas (27), North Carolina (24), Tennessee (24) and Ohio (22).
“Many announced investments do not yet have dollar amounts associated with them, meaning investment dollars will increase significantly over time,” DOE noted in the announcement.
Following a regime that abandoned the Paris Agreement, the Biden administration passed three major pieces of legislation in 2021 and 2022 that incentivize investments related to reducing global warming emissions: the ‘Investment and Employment in Infrastructures during its first year, followed by the CHIPS Act and Science and Inflation. Last year’s reduction law.
“President Biden’s Investing in America agenda has led to a clean energy boom in every corner of America, bringing good-paying union jobs and new economic opportunities,” said John Podesta, senior adviser to Biden in innovation and implementation of clean energies. a statement
About the map, accessible on the DOE website, Podesta said, “This new interactive map from the Department of Energy is a great resource for understanding the broad and important impact of this map. [clean energy] The boom is taking place in communities across our country.”
Nongovernmental research organization Rhodium Group LLC previously reported $213 billion in total clean energy-related investments in the country between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023. The figure includes the building and expanding factories that produce clean energy, carbon management technologies and vehicles; carbon capture facilities; decarbonisation activities in the industrial sector; and the purchase and installation of energy generation technology in homes and businesses.
The figure marked a 37 percent increase from the same 12-month period in 2021-22, according to Rhodium’s inaugural Clean Investment Monitor report released on Wednesday. “The fastest investment growth this year has been in cleantech manufacturing, with annual investment growing 125 percent year-over-year to $39 billion,” the report states. “Investment in clean energy production and industrial decarbonization increased 15 percent year-over-year to $61 billion. Retail investment in the purchase and installation of GHG emission reduction technology increased 32 percent hundred to $113 billion.”
The Clean Investment Monitor is a monitoring website by Rhodium and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In an earlier report, Rhodium said that carrying out US policies in place from June 2023 can reduce the nation’s emissions by 32 to 51 percent below 2005 levels by 2035. That would still be below Washington’s commitment of 50-52% below 2005 levels by 2030. in the Paris Agreement, a legally binding global treaty that entered into force in November 2016 after being agreed by the Nations United in the French capital in 2015.
But with increased policy at both the federal and state levels, the US can achieve emissions reductions of 42-57 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, Rhodium said in the report released on 20 july This higher reduction scenario requires “additional regulations for the electricity sector, minimum equipment performance standards, and the repurposing of discretionary funding at the Commodities Conservation Corporation for climate-smart agriculture and forestry practices.”
“Additionally, climate-leading states are approaching best-in-class clean energy standards, ZEV [zero-emitting vehicle] mandates, adopt low-carbon fuel standards and implement other decarbonisation policies,” the annual “Taking Stock” report said.
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