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Good morning and happy Friday,
Holy heat dome, Batman – this week has seen dangerously hot weather across much of the country, shattering temperature records and testing power grids (more articles below). Scientists say intense summer heat arriving
earlier and lasting longer is the new normal, and government officials say power bills will be going up, too. Meanwhile, global CO2 emissions from the energy sector reached a record high in 2024.
Against this steamy backdrop, a marathon weekend awaits the Senate, and GOP holdouts in the House are threatening revolt over the OBBB. A powerful coalition of clean energy advocates is lobbying hard to maintain the
“start of construction” language in the Senate’s version, and the solar manufacturing sector is doing the same regarding the 48E tax credit with the domestic content bonus.
A new analysis from E2 finds that policy uncertainty around the IRA tax credits resulted in the cancellation of $1.4 billion in new clean energy factories and projects in May alone, bringing total cancellations in 2025 to $15.5
billion, with nearly 12,000 jobs lost.
On a more positive note, the latest EIA data shows renewable energy produced “nearly one-third of total U.S. electrical generation in April” – nearly as much as natural gas – “with solar providing over 10% of total national output.”
Read on for more.
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Bada Bing, Bada BESS
ACP and Wood Mackenzie released the latest U.S. Energy Storage Monitor this week, and despite significant policy uncertainty, the American energy storage market experienced record growth in Q1 2025. Here’s more on the report as well as some other news items of note in the energy storage sector:
Q1 2025 saw the energy storage sector add more than 2 GW across all segments and mark the highest Q1 on record; the report forecasts a total of 15.2 GW in additions by the end of the year. On a more sombre note, however, “the segment is at risk for a potential 29% contraction in 2026 due to policy uncertainty.”
New Jersey has announced a “rebranded energy storage drive” as part of the state’s efforts to secure 2 GW of energy storage by 2030. The first
solicitation seeks to award 350-750 MW.
⚡️ The Takeaway
Bureaucracy by design. While the energy storage market continues to grow, domestic battery manufacturing is staring down a major threat. As we covered last week, the Senate’s version of the OBBB includes language on foreign entities of concern (FEOC) that experts say is so vague and sweeping it could grind the sector to a halt. One tax advisor warns it could require companies to trace the origin of every component—“down to the last nut or bolt”—to avoid disqualification. The result? A level of compliance that’s not just burdensome, but potentially
unworkable. Much of the industry, they note, hasn’t yet grasped just how disruptive this language could be.
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Setbacks On the Bayou
Louisiana has seen a “small surge” in utility-scale solar projects, and this activity resulted in some divisions among parishes over restrictions for such projects. In response, a new law has been passed that “introduces basic guardrails” and creates setback requirements for large-scale solar, wind, and energy projects over 75 acres. Here’s a closer look at what’s happening in the
Bayou State, as well as in other states across the country.
The legislation in question, HB 459, introduces a statewide siting framework for large-scale renewable projects, requiring commercial developers to obtain permits from the Department of Energy and Natural Resources, submit a decommissioning plan, and post financial security.
It applies to facilities constructed after January 1, 2026 and requires that large-scale solar projects must maintain a 300-foot buffer from nearby homes with added screening, a 100-foot setback from waterways, and a 50-foot setback from public roads with vegetative barriers.
In addition, noise levels greater than 10 decibels above the pre-construction ambient noise level at the property line are prohibited.
However, if local parishes and/or landowners wish to opt out of these requirements, they have the ability to do so through a formal resolution, “maintaining a balance between state-level consistency and local control.” Notably, “this may open the door to local governments creating more restrictive requirements.”
⚡️ The Takeaway
Site seeing. Louisiana isn’t alone. Across the country, states are grappling with how to regulate renewable energy development—and more often than not, local control is taking center stage. This week, the Siting Solutions Project released its June State of Siting newsletter, reporting that over 300 siting-related bills have been introduced in 47 states in 2025. Most legislative sessions have now wrapped, and a full recap is expected next month. One growing trend: bills that require local resolutions or public referenda as a condition for siting
approval. These policies are most common in states without statewide siting frameworks, where renewable projects often face unique permitting hurdles not applied to fossil fuels.
Translation: Without clear state-level guardrails, clean energy developers are increasingly navigating a growing maze of local restrictions—and Louisiana’s new law may be a sign of more to come.
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Wings and Roller Coasters
Wyoming-based Airloom Energy has taken another big step by breaking ground on a pilot facility that could transform the future of wind energy. Backed by Bill Gates, the company hopes to revolutionize wind energy – not by going big, but rather, by going small.
Airloom’s low-profile turbines – which consist of “wings on poles” – are also named Airloom, and stand just 82 feet (25 meters) tall. This is significantly smaller than conventional utility-scale wind turbines, and as explained in this video, it also means the turbines are much lighter and easier to transport – a single 2.5 MW turbine can be moved with a standard semi-trailer.
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Notably, Airloom turbines are made from “mass-manufacturable, US-developed components,” and can be deployed in less than a year – much faster than conventional turbines, which can easily require 5 years. An added benefit is that their low-profile, low-impact design “enables installation in low-wind regions, remote islands, mountainous terrain, and restricted zones like military bases or airports, where large spinning blades are impractical.”
Airloom’s CEO likens the technology to a roller coaster, and the company says the cost of its turbines is “significantly lower” than that of traditional turbines: “the Airloom turbine can be built at one-tenth the cost, and an entire wind farm can be developed at one-quarter the cost,” meaning the estimated levelized cost of energy “would be one-third of conventional wind technology.” TBD if small turbines might be the next big thing.
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Building American power requires a powerful team.
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