The American Clean Power Association (ACP) held its annual CleanPower event in Phoenix, Arizona May 19 to 22, 2025, convening over 8,000 industry members and 500 exhibitors in the utility-scale clean power industry.
Experts in solar, wind and energy storage met to strike deals, share product updates and get the latest scoop on regulatory changes. pv magazine USA attended the event, gaining insight on the challenges and solutions for decarbonized utility-scale power.
In a show floor panel discussion, ACP market intelligence senior director Kelsey Hallahan shared new data for Q1 2025 buildout, noting the industry continues to dominate new electricity generation capacity added to the grid.
ACP tracked 4.5 GW of new utility-scale solar, 1.6 GW of new grid-facing energy storage, and 1.3 GW of land-based wind additions in Q1 2025 alone. This brings the combined capacity of those technologies to 320 GW, or roughly enough to power nearly 80 million U.S. homes.
The U.S. now has 30.7 GW of grid-facing storage installed, marking 65% growth year-over-year, said ACP.
“Q1 was really good,” said Rob Keiser, head of asset management, Orsted. “A lot of us have lived through those [Production Tax Credit] cliffs in the past where you get this big run up in Q4, and then Q1 leads to a lot of disappointment when it comes to megawatts in the ground. Seeing more and more megawatts in Q1, that means the policy is working. There as certainty around making investment decisions.”
Despite this growth and a strong regulatory environment, things are soon set to change. The elephant in the room during the event is the ongoing budget reconciliation process and the ongoing uncertainty related to tax credit availability for solar, wind and energy storage.
On Thursday, the final day of the event, news arrived that the House narrowly passed the “big, beautiful bill.” The revised bill came in worse than expected for the clean energy industry, cutting the Investment Tax Credit and Production Tax Credit for any projects not placed in service by the end of 2028, rather than a slower phase-out through 2031.
The news left a chilling feel on the show floor as the industry grappled with the reality of a potential sudden cut off of regulatory support. The bill will next head to the Senate, where it could be revised to be more beneficial to clean power buildout, but as is, the bill was dubbed “unworkable legislation” by Abigail Ross Hopper, president and chief executive officer, Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).
Despite the regulatory turmoil, there was also optimism on the show floor. Several discussions revolved around the expected increased electricity demand in the United States led by the AI and datacenter boom, as well as the electrification of transportation and buildings. After decades of relatively flat demand, electricity load growth is expected to take off, carving out a large role for clean power.
Another bright spot for the event is the boom in U.S. clean energy manufacturing. ACP released a report alongside the event tracking progress toward onshoring production.
ACP said clean energy manufacturing now accounts for $18 billion in GDP annually, growing to as much as $86 billion by 2030. The clean power manufacturing industry supports over 122,000 jobs, growing to as many as 575,000 jobs by 2030, it said.
“Surging clean energy deployment is creating new manufacturing facilities across the country. This success will create hundreds of thousands of jobs and revitalize American communities if policy leaders place economic progress over partisan division,” said Jason Grumet, CEO of ACP.
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