Report: $8 billion in renewable energy investments canceled in Q1
The first three months of 2025 have seen $8 billion in investments canceled and 16 new large-scale factories and other projects abandoned or downsized in the renewable energy industry, according to a new report.
E2’s latest Clean Economy Works monthly update shows that escalating market uncertainty is taking a toll on renewables as Congress begins debate on repealing tax credits and other incentives. The $7.9 billion in investments withdrawn since January are more than three times the total investments canceled over the previous 30 months combined, the report shows.
Still, companies continue to invest in the potential of America’s clean economy. Businesses in March announced more than $1.6 billion in investments for new solar, EV and grid and transmission equipment factories across six states — including a $200 million investment by Tesla to build a battery factory near Houston that is expected to create at least 1,500 new jobs. Combined, the 10 projects announced in March are expected to create at least 5,000 new permanent jobs if completed.
“Clean energy companies still want to invest in America, but uncertainty over Trump administration policies and the future of critical clean energy tax credits are taking a clear toll,” said Michael Timberlake, E2 communications director. “If this self-inflicted and unnecessary market uncertainty continues, we’ll almost certainly see more projects paused, more construction halted, and more job opportunities disappear.”
March’s announcements bring the overall number of major clean energy projects tracked by E2 to 390 across 42 states and Puerto Rico. Companies have said they plan to invest more than $133 billion in these projects and hire 122,000 permanent workers. (These figures reflect ongoing revisions and updates.)
Since federal clean energy tax credits were passed by Congress in August 2022, a total of 34 projects have been cancelled, closed or downsized, according to data from E2 and Atlas Public Policy. Over 15,000 jobs and $10 billion in investments were connected with the abandoned projects.
But the rate of cancellations increased dramatically in the past two months. In February and March alone, 13 projects and more than $5 billion in connected investments were cancelled or downsized — including Bosch’s cancellation of a $200 million hydrogen fuel cell factory in South Carolina and Freyr Battery’s cancellation of a $2.5 billion battery factory in Georgia.
Republican congressional districts, which have benefitted the most from the Biden-era clean energy tax credits, also are seeing the most cancellations. More than $6 billion and over 10,000 jobs have been cancelled in Republican districts so far.
Through March, over 62% of all clean energy projects announced — along with 71% of all jobs and 83% of all investments — are in congressional districts represented by Republicans.
A full map and list of announcements is available at e2.org/announcements/. Cancellation data will be incorporated in the coming weeks.
Click here for a list of March clean energy announcements tracked by E2 along with totals by state, sector, congressional district, and industry type for projects announced, cancelled, downsized, and closed since E2 began tracking in August 2022.