Even $370 Billion in US Incentives Won’t Solve All of Solar’s Struggles
While the Inflation Reduction Act calls for a huge injection in clean energy spending, the industry still faces supply snarls, trade tensions and delays in connecting to power grids.
The Yellowbud Solar Project in rural Ohio.
Photographer: Doral Chenoweth/The Columbus Dispatch
Five months after President Joe Biden signed the most ambitious climate law in US history, the country is poised to install a record amount of solar power in 2023. But the industry’s big growth spurt may be another year or two away.
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) calls for about $370 billion in spending on clean energy to help arrest the worsening climate crisis, but a confluence of factors—supply snarls, trade tensions, delays in connection to power grids and uncertainty about forthcoming rules stemming from the new law—will likely constrain solar panel installations this year.