Energy storage industry figures were among attendees at a celebration event on Tuesday at the White House, marking the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.
The event took place one month on from US President Joe Biden’s signing of the act. The legislation includes US$369 billion of measures to advance the country’s clean energy progress, with the standout from an energy storage perspective being the inclusion of an investment tax credit (ITC) for standalone energy storage.
It also includes manufacturing incentives for clean energy technologies including solar PV and batteries, with an emphasis on supporting the domestic value chain and local labour.
“We are going to take the most aggressive action ever, ever, ever to confront the climate crisis and increase our energy security,” Biden said during a speech at the event.
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As reported by our sister site PV Tech, many leading executives from the solar industry attended the celebration on the White House lawn, such as Dan Shugar, CEO of solar tracker firm NEXTracker. Shugar said that it was now time for the industry to deliver on creating US manufacturing capacity, jobs, lowering energy costs for customers and increasing US energy security and air quality.
From the energy storage side, Jason Burwen, VP for energy storage at the American Clean Power Association (ACP) – and former interim CEO of the Energy Storage Association which recently merged with ACP – was there.
Burwen said he was “thrilled to celebrate” with Kiran Kuraswamy, VP of growth and head of commercial at system integrator and technology provider Fluence. Kuraswamy is a board member of ACP.
Kuraswamy offered updates about the IRA and about the event as it took place via Fluence’s LinkedIn page, calling it “an incredibly profound and celebratory occasion for so many of us who have been committed to driving change forward for the energy industry”.
“The most pressing crisis of our time is on our shoulders – and the recent spike in droughts, floods, heat waves, and other major weather events is a glaring sign that we need to do better NOW,” he wrote, adding that he hoped the IRA illuminated the need for governments around the world to act.
Others in attendance included Lindsay Gorrill, CEO of US-based battery and energy storage system manufacturer KORE Power, which is presently building a 12GWh gigafactory in Arizona. Gorrill posted to his LinkedIn that he believed the Inflation Reduction Act “is a critical piece of legislation for the US to develop its own supply chain,” as well as an “incredible lift” to companies like his.
Alex O’Cinneide, CEO and founder of Gore Street Capital, a UK-headquartered firm which invests in and develops large-scale front-of-the-meter energy storage assets, and recently expanded into the US market, said he was “a little overwhelmed but also proud” to represent his company at the celebration.
The Act’s climate provisions are “globally important,” O’Cinneide posted.
The event’s guestlist included representatives of renewable energy and energy storage developers like Cypress Creek Renewables, AES Clean Energy and Clearway Energy Group and technology providers like Form Energy and GE Renewable Energy, alongside lawmakers, financiers, activists and many more.
Below is a handy list of some of our coverage of the Inflation Reduction Act to date at Energy-Storage.news.
28 July 2022: Manchin-Schumer-backed Inflation Reduction Act includes ITC for energy storage
8 August 2022: US Inflation Reduction Act: Biden looks forward to making biggest-ever climate investment
9 August 2022: Inflation Reduction Act could mean the end of ‘dumb’ solar-plus-storage hybrids
11 August 2022: What the Inflation Reduction Act can do for energy storage, a lawyer’s viewpoint
15 August 2022:Inflation Reduction Act passes: Climate action, energy security, and economic recovery start today
17 August 2022: Energy storage industry hails ‘transformational’ Inflation Reduction Act
17 August 2022: Inflation Reduction Act prompts Turkish company to increase US gigafactory output to 3GWh
18 August 2022: Inflation Reduction Act: Fluence expects US battery cell production onshoring to accelerate
22 August 2022: Will the US Inflation Reduction Act boost demand for flow batteries?
Visit PV Tech to follow our colleagues’ coverage of the legislation from a solar PV industry perspective.
