3 min read

Aug 16, 2024

by Jim Murphy, President and Corporate Business Leader, Invenergy

Aug 16, 2024

power lines

Demand for Power is Increasing. The Inflation Reduction Act Laid the Groundwork to Meet It.

by Jim Murphy, President and Corporate Business Leader, Invenergy

It is both a fundamental need and simply good business to make the energy grid fit for the future – one that is cleaner, more reliable, and more affordable for people and communities. Demand for this secure, lower cost, and lower carbon power is increasing, and our customers rely on us to meet their needs with flexible technologies, engineering expertise, and the highest safety standards.
And while we’ve never believed at Invenergy that a single piece of legislation can dictate our success, it’s clear the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) accelerates our ability to meet our customers’ needs. It is bringing transformational energy security and reliability, job growth, and cleaner air that meaningfully improves local communities.
Take for example our efforts to reclaim solar technology leadership, domestic production, and supply chain capacity. It’s a high priority for the country and for Invenergy. The manufacturing tax credits in the IRA have been instrumental in bringing solar module manufacturing back to the United States. Invenergy is proud to be a majority owner and anchor customer of Illuminate USA, a leading solar panel manufacturing facility in Pataskala, Ohio. Illuminate USA just marked the production of their one millionth panel and hired their one thousandth employee in under one year. And when the facility reaches full production by December, it will produce 5 GW worth of panels annually—enough to power more than one million homes. With Illuminate USA, we made the first successful step towards onshoring the solar supply chain, creating jobs, and reclaiming America’s solar leadership from foreign manufacturers. This is a huge win for the clean energy transition, American leadership, and our economy.
Second, the IRA accelerated our ability to deliver cleaner, more reliable, more affordable energy and jobs to more communities. In 2022, we launched Reactivate to deliver community solar energy solutions across the country. Reactivate delivered significant energy, jobs, and savings since its creation—including seven community solar projects installed that will save families a minimum of 20% on their monthly electricity bills. By 2030, Reactivate seeks to develop three gigawatts of renewable energy capacity, save $50 million in energy costs for low and moderate-income households, create jobs and facilitate workforce training for 2,500 workers. The IRA is pivotal to its ability to reach these goals.
At the same time these IRA success stories have unfolded, so too has the increased demand for electricity. Driven by EVs, manufacturing growth, AI, and expanding data centers, there’s no doubt that more energy infrastructure is needed to meet the rising demand. I’ve spent more than four decades in energy, and I’ve seen upfront how time-intensive energy projects are. And while the IRA stimulated tremendous job growth and the country’s clean energy transition, it’s also shown the impact a stable energy policy landscape can have on the ability to deliver cleaner, more reliable, affordable energy.
In other words, continuation of the stable policy environment is essential to unleashing the full potential of the clean energy investments sparked by the IRA. Provisions of the law have provided certainty for companies, like Invenergy, to plan for the future and advance projects crucial to creating a more secure and reliable energy grid. For the first time, the clean energy industry has the roadmap to make long-term investment decisions, and we’ve seen an influx of energy infrastructure investments across the country that are creating jobs and growing local economies because of it.
For the last 20 years, Invenergy has been responsibly developing, building, owning, and operating wind, solar, and natural gas generation projects, and energy storage facilities. But we believe the future requires a more robust, resilient grid which is why we’re also investing in transmission lines essential to connect clean generation capacity and move power long instances across regions from where it’s produced to where it’s needed. Doing so will increase energy reliability and resilience and reduce customer costs—just another reason why a stable policy landscape—including permitting reform—is necessary to meet future demand.
We know that America is positioned today to lead the clean energy transition, and we know that these projects are color blind: states and counties—whether red, blue, or purple—are seeing the benefit of the projects we’re deploying because they’re delivering jobs, they’re delivering workforce development opportunities, and they’re supporting regional growth and investment. We'll keep working with our public and private partners to ensure the stable policy landscape remains so we can help meet increasing demand with cleaner, more reliable, more affordable energy for all.

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