The energy transition is not an option, it’s mandatory. CEOs and investors know this.
We’re seeing resilience in the market driven transition, even in the face of MAGA hostility.
Ford says it’s finally cracked the code on cheap EVs.
The automaker announced plans to build “a family” of low-cost electric vehicles at its Kentucky assembly plant, starting with a four-door, midsized $30,000 pickup truck in 2027. Ford touted the announcement as its “Model T moment” that will be more streamlined to help bring down costs and put the company on a path to profitability. And it comes at an inflection point for the iconic American automaker, with the company expected to lose over $5 billion on EVs and software this year alone.
The platforms will be scalable and adaptive to a variety of vehicle types, including trucks, vans, and SUVs. The new EVs will be software-defined, meaning they will have operating systems that can improve over time through over-the-air updates. The batteries will have lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistries that are more durable, faster charging, and more affordable than its current lineup of EVs. And the manufacturing process will transform from a single assembly line, popularized over 120 years ago with the Model T, into an “assembly tree” with multiple lines starting simultaneously before joining together.
The new vehicle platform and manufacturing process are the product of Ford’s three-year-old Silicon Valley-based “skunkworks” project that the company empowered to create throw out all the old processes and create something new from scratch.
“This is a bold and difficult undertaking to compete with the best in the world,” Doug Field, Ford’s chief EV, digital and design officer, said in a briefing with reporters on Monday. “We started with a blank sheet to fight complexity and do something truly new.”
That’s what Jonah Goldman of the infrastructure investment firm Generate Capital is banking on. As electricity demand rises for the first time in over a decade, the need to deploy cost-competitive grid energy is only increasing. Thus, Goldman sees plenty of reason to continue investing in a renewables buildout — solar especially, which can often be deployed more quickly, flexibly, and economically than any other form of generation, politics aside.
“What is not a question really anymore is whether these projects are going to get built,” Goldman told me. “There’s just not another option. Even if you think of doubling our investment in gas generation, you still don’t get to this incredible increase in power demand that we need in order to reach the projections that we’re getting.”
Taking a closer look at the post-IRA projects that have been either canceled or scaled back shows that solar is indeed the most resilient investment of the bunch. Since the IRA’s passage, about 12% of announced solar projects have been canceled or downsized, compared to 25% of wind projects, 19% of EV projects, and 34% of EV battery projects. Only three of the 35 projects hit this year were related to solar, and only one of those was for solar generation.
Despite the overall dour domestic investment outlook, Timberlake thus agrees with Goldman that solar in particular isn’t grinding to a halt anytime soon. The market signal for clean energy, Timberlake said, is “indisputable.” The buildout might happen more slowly than it otherwise would have, as the administration continues to unspool regulatory red tape for these projects, but it’ll happen.
And, of course, it will get more expensive. Because while Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill maintains investment and production tax credits for most clean energy technologies through 2033, it cuts credits for solar and wind projects that either start construction after July 2026, or, if they haven’t started by then, are placed in service after 2027.
The pace of new capacity of U.S. solar, wind and battery systems has slowed nationally and in key states this year, hurting clean energy sector sentiment. But climate trackers can take heart from the continued growth outside Texas and California.
Combined installations of solar, wind and battery storage systems are on track to climb by around 7% in 2025 from the year before, according to data compiled by energy data platform Cleanview as of mid-2025.
That would mark the smallest year-over-year percentage expansion in the footprint of those energy technologies in over a decade, and comes amid aggressive cuts to support for clean power since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to office.
Climate advocates are particularly alarmed by the slowing in capacity growth in Texas and California, which account for over a third of national combined clean energy capacity but have grown by less than the national average this year.
But while there’s plenty for clean energy trackers to be concerned about, there are signs that expansions continue outside of the main clean energy states to suggest the U.S. energy transition may be widening even as it slows in 2025.
Solar power capacity has been the fastest-growing form of clean power generation over the past five years, with national capacity expanding by 181% since 2020 to roughly 136,250 megawatts (MW) as of mid 2025, Cleanview data shows.
Total U.S. solar capacity has grown by an annual average of 27% since 2020, but so far in 2025 has only grown by 10% from 2024’s total due to the sharp slowdown in developer activity.
The growth pace of the combined solar installations in California and Texas – the top two solar producing states – was 8% so far in 2025, and so was less than the national average due mainly to the lowest capacity growth in California on record.
Capacity growth in Florida, Nevada, Georgia and Virginia – all top 10 solar states – was also well below the national average.
However, Arizona, Ohio and Indiana, which are also in the top 10 list, posted growth rates of well over twice the national average to sustain the overall national growth trend.
The fact that the WSJ’s opinion side is complaining bitterly about Republican Senators in Iowa and Utah holding up some Trump appointments due to the Trump attack on green energy programs is a nice thing to see –
“The Wind Empire Strikes Back
Grassley and Curtis hold nominees hostage to extend tax credits.”
“It’s been all of a month since Congress passed its big tax bill, and already some Republicans are trying to undermine its better parts. Behold how Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley and Utah’s John Curtis are taking President Trump’s Treasury nominees hostage to help their solar and wind friends.”
Perhaps some of the Republicans in Washington are waking up to the realities of what’s good for their state economies rather than just handing all the gifts to the states with fossil energy. It’s not a tide of support yet, but it’s better than if it were all Republicans allowing their residents to suffer.
Especially interested to see how the anti-renewable attack strategy holds up as consumers realize that Big Tech is going to boost their utility bills for electricity, while the burst of LNG export projects send natural gas to more profitable overseas customers – especially as the backlog on new gas turbines slows new gas-fired power plants here.