Policy changes and project cancellations are slowing the pace of expansion in US clean energy manufacturing investment, a new report from the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and Atlas Public Policy has found.
According to the report, The State of Clean Energy Manufacturing in Q2 2026, US firms announced $7.9 billion in new clean energy manufacturing investments in the second quarter of this year, however $2.9 billion of projects were cancelled, leaving $5 billion in net new investment.
Since the beginning of 2025, meanwhile, some $40 billion worth of investments have even cancelled, along with 53,000 announced manufacturing jobs.
Second-quarter investment
In the second quarter of this year, growth was driven by solar manufacturing, transmission, and grid equipment, the EDF noted. The largest project to get the go ahead was a $5 billion solar manufacturing campus being developed by Convalt Energy in New Mexico, the biggest clean energy manufacturing investment to be announced under the current administration.
However, this is only the third clean energy manufacturing investment worth more than $1 billion to be announced over the past 18 months. In contrast, between July 2023 and December 2024, some 24 projects exceeding a value of $1 billion were announced.
“Four years after the Inflation Reduction Act helped launch a clean energy manufacturing boom, this report shows that companies see what the Trump administration refuses to acknowledge: clean energy technologies are cost-competitive and here to stay,” commented Grace Hauser, technical analyst, clean power at Environmental Defense Fund. “Federal policies that provide long-term certainty can keep that momentum going, but recent policy changes are putting America’s manufacturing competitiveness at risk.”
Investment growth
Despite the recent slowdown, some $244.8 billion worth of green energy manufacturing investments have been made in the US since the turn of the century, in the process creating 331,900 manufacturing jobs.
More than 70% of the announced clean energy manufacturing investment has occurred in congressional districts currently represented by Republicans, the EDF added. Read more here.
